A dragon replaces the samurai
by Zarek666
Summary: Summary: What if caster summoned a different assassin for the war?
1. Chapter 1

A dragon replaces the samurai

Summary: What if caster summoned a different assassin for the war?

Author note: This is an older, more experienced Eragon than the one from the books. I'm also making him a bit more humorous than he was in the books. The reason I chose Eragon is because he is a good blend of Saber, Archer, Rider and Caster all rolled into one which is an interesting combination.

I haven't updated my other story because my college work was piling up and I wanted to see if I could combine another anime I enjoy with one of my favourite books.

I do not own fate stay night or Eragon. Wish I did but I don't.

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Caster watched the summoning circle flare to life, she had succeeded in summoning a servant. She didn't think it would work as the only available slots were Saber and Assassin but she'd done it, and with two servants working together she would win the grail war. Although she was going to be spending a while recovering the energy she expended summoning this servant even if she had used the ley lines for the most part.

She heard movement through the dense cloud of smoke that signified a successful summoning, and the figure of a man came into sight.

He was wearing leather armour, stood slightly taller than her with a well-developed athletic body and long brown hair, but it was clear that this man was unnatural. He ears were pointed, his eyes were slanted and he had some sort of ethereal beauty that normal humans just didn't possess.

"Are you my master?" he asked neutrally as his eyes glazed over her form.

Medea gazed at the man, her cloak rising to give her an appearance of power. She couldn't be seen as weak as she currently was before her servant. "Yes, I am your master."

Her servant said nothing but continued to gaze at her, taking in her appearance. She was shorter than him, the top of her head just reaching above the height of his chin. Her body was clad in an elaborate robe with various layers, a cloak of purple with golden trim resting atop one of green with a similar design, brought together by a golden brooch resting in the centre of her chest. Under these layers another sheet of purple hugged her body tight like that of a dress, flowing all the way to the ground. Her face was almost completely covered by a hood with a strange golden ornament, the smooth skin of her soft jaw and firmly pressed lips were the only details of her face he could catch a glimpse of.

"I don't appreciate being ignored, servant." She was not in the mood to be annoyed right now.

"Sorry," he smirked, he didn't sorry at all. He got the feeling she was burning a hole into his chest with her eyes, "it's just that I was wondering why you summoned me when you're a servant yourself."

"I summoned you to win the war. Now what are you?"

The man smirked, "I guess you could say I'm half elf."

Caster glared at her smiling servant, she suspected he was deliberately being annoying, "I meant your servant class you idiot,"

Seeing as a bow was slung across his back and a blue sword tucked into his belt, a belt that had numerous precious stones embedded in it, she thought he was either a servant of the Archer or Saber class. But seeing as Archer had already been summoned he couldn't be that class so it was possible that he was Saber.

"Are you Archer or Saber?" she queried, hoping that it was the latter. If he was a Saber then they would be the perfect combination, the strongest magic user and one who was highly immune to magic. If he truly was a Saber, then she wouldn't have to worry about friendly fire. She could use all her power without having to worry about destroying her servant in the process.

"I can be classed as either of those but I'm usually classed as Rider. It appears that this time I have been summoned under the Assassin class" smiled the servant, now identified as Assassin.

Caster couldn't believe that she had summoned what is considered the weakest of servants, while having another servant was helpful an Assassin wasn't much use against other servants.

"Well then, what can you do Assassin?" her jaw was clenched.

"Well as you might have guessed I am good with a bow and a sword but I do have some skill in magic and remaining undetected as an assassin should. When you think about it I can be called as Saber, Archer, Caster or Assassin, even Rider given my mount."

"What is your name?" if she had his name then she could see assassin as the grail saw him, showing his stats and abilities, then she wouldn't have to deal with this headache.

"Eragon shade slayer,"

She saw nothing besides his stats, which were quite impressive for an Assassin class, beyond even her own, but not his abilities or noble phantasms. "That's obviously not your full name."

"I know," he replied "Eragon is my name and shade slayer is one of my titles. I'll be keeping my skills a secret if you don't mind."

If she had the strength she would have blasted him right then but as it is she was too tired from summoning him to do anything about it. She decided to give him a warning anyway.

"Listen well, Eragon." she hissed, her voice cold, "you will do what I say, when I say it, are we clear,"

"Yes master," he smirked.

"Good. Now I want you to search the city and gather as much information as you can about the other servants and their masters, and don't reveal yourself no matter what, understand?"

"Yes but I think I have a way to make it more interesting."

"Oh," she wondered what he could possibly be thinking.

"I think I have a plan that would make it so no one who sees you would think you are the Caster of this war if you stay hidden." Eragon explained, "If you can make something to stop other servants detecting you then I could pretend to be the Caster of this war. It will also make the other masters and servants unnerved because they won't know where Assassin is and that could lead to them making mistakes."

Caster smiled after considering the plan, maybe he was a good servant after all.

"That's actually not a bad plan," Caster commented, "and you're willing to do so much for me. Why would you be willing to take such a risk?"

"You're my master," he answered honestly, "and you're hot." That earned him a slap.

"Don't try flirting with me," she growled, "carry out this plan and do not disappoint me. I don't take failure lightly."

And with that, she left to get some rest, the door sliding shut with a soft click. She would start work on an item to conceal her presence as a servant tomorrow when she had the strength. If she had the strength right now she would have blasted her servant without a second thought.

Sighing quietly, Eragon briefly gazed at the door his master left through before moving towards a separate door. He followed the narrow hallway until he came upon the outside world. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the morning sun before he walked towards the large archway at the other side of the courtyard. His weapons disappeared, his ears rounded, his hair shortened and turned blond and his clothes become a simple pair of blue jeans and a blue shirt within seconds, his footwear turning into trainers as he passed the archway. He looked like a tourist.

Reaching the stairs, he descended them quickly even if they were absurdly long. He felt the supply of energy he got from the temple weaken as he walked but he was expecting that, his summoning had been different after all. His master had tapped into the ley lines to summon him and in doing so caused the land itself to be his anchor to this world while she held the command seals. If it wasn't for his Independent Action he wouldn't have been able to leave the temple grounds at all. Good thing his master didn't know about that or she would have never let him go. With his rank in Independent Action he would only need to go back to Ryuudou temple to get energy to use his noble phantasms, and with his mana levels that wouldn't be often if he used them sparingly.

He roamed constantly, taking in the impressive sites wishing he could fly above the clouds with Saphira again, but he had a job to do. Eragon loved to fly, it was no secret to those who knew him. Many a day had been wasted engaging in the simple, relaxing act of flying on his beloved Saphira, it just so natural to him, which was strange considering he was not an animal born to the skies. He loved the feeling of the air running through his hair but the one thing he enjoyed far more than anything was the view. The world was completely different from above. Night or day, good weather or bad, seeing the world from above took his breath away. Everything unfolding before his eyes, opening up a whole new world to explore.

His Presence Concealment hid his presence as a servant so he could scout the city without being found out, at least he hoped he could. There would be some who could detect what he was but by that time his plan should be in full swing.

He headed for the bridge, surprised at the lack of foot traffic he encountered while crossing the river. He quickly decided that this was an ideal place to just relax but he'd only passed a handful of people by the time he reached the other side. For such a beautiful place, it had an abandoned feel to it, one that didn't feel natural.

He continued on, coming across the more people until the sidewalk was completely packed and the tall buildings cast shadows as the sun reached its peak in the sky. Moving with the crowd he searched for the possible location of another servant but so far found none. After mapping out the city all day with no luck in locating any enemy servants and night was descending, he was about to call it a day and head back to the temple when he felt a flare of mana from the school. At first he thought it might be a magus but after a moment he knew it was definitely a servant so he decided to check it out. He might be able to learn something about them and their masters that could help with defeating them.

00000

A teenage girl around sixteen with her long dark hair tied in two pigtails and aqua blue eyes did not like how her day had ended up. For any normal person, what she was seeing would have been in shock, but she was not any normal person. She was Rin Tousaka, a magus and the heir of the Tohsaka Head of the Tousaka Clan of Mages, the family which for all intents and purposes owned the land on which the city of Fuyuki lay. She was also a master in the grail war.

The grail war is a competition between seven servants and masters who fight for the right to use the Holy Grail to grant their one true wish. Seven heroes separated into seven classes will be summoned from the Throne of Heroes, the place where they resides after death because of the legend that made them known in the world, by seven chosen magus as their masters.

Just a few nights ago she was in the basement of her house preparing to summon her servant, unfortunately she didn't have a catalyst for the servant she wished to summon. She wasn't concerned about that as it was not unheard of to summon one without a catalyst and there were only two classes left to choose from, Archer and Saber. She was a prodigy of magecraft so she was certain she would get the strongest class, Saber.

However once she completed the ritual she could see her command seals but not her servant. She was alone in her basement, she looked around fully expecting to see a servant, but there was nothing. She had done everything right so why didn't it work. She prepared the summoning circle correctly, her power is at its peak at this precise hour, there should be a servant standing right in front of her but there was only empty space. Did she fail because she didn't use a catalyst?

For a magus to summon a specific hero they must use a catalyst, something like a shred of cloth from the clothes the hero wore when he was alive, or even a piece of the weapon that they once used. Something that had once belonged to the hero or something that could be linked to the hero's legend. The problem with obtaining these catalysts was that a magus needed to have a vast amount of wealth and resources because they are items so rare that their existence might not be known. While she may be comfortable with her financial conditions, she wasn't able to obtain a proper catalyst to summon a certain hero.

So she had left it to luck. She hoped that the hero that she summoned would be a well-renowned hero, and hopefully, if she's awfully fortunate enough, the hero would be of Saber class as well.

Then she heard the sound of heavy banging from the lounge above her head and the sound of the roof collapsing. In her panic, she ran as fast as her exhausted body let her out of the room and up the stairs. However she found the door to the lounge blocked and wouldn't budge when she tried to open it. She ended up kicking the door open, and stared in to the living room. In that instance she understood everything. The room was a mess. The devastation in front of her was plain to see as a large whole visible through the two floors above her head culminating in a pile of timber and masonry rubble in front of her.

Between the rubble, on a makeshift throne, created from her wardrobe, bed and other unidentified furniture, she saw a man wearing onyx armour beneath a unique red coat that only has a pair of long sleeves that covered his arms and the lower part of the coat. He was attired strangely for a hero of legend. His skin was tanned and his white hair was short and spiky, he had a pair of grey eyes that gave him a rather piercing gaze. He just sat in a laid back manner as if everything in the word was just right, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he just demolished the home of a magus.

"It appears I've been summoned by a peculiar master," the tanned skinned man chuckled.

Rin didn't even have the energy to blast him so after finding out his class she threw a mop at and told him to clean up the mess he made. She cursed her luck inwardly at summoning Archer because it wasn't the one she wanted, even if it was one of the three knight classes other than Lancer and Saber. This was a tactical disadvantage in a combat situation because both he and Rin exceled at long range attacks rather than close range. If she had managed to summon Saber the dynamic would have been balanced, she would be able to participate in combat by attacking other masters from a distance while Saber would be the one to take out the servants in close combat.

When this Archer casually mentioned that there was a problem with the summoning, her twitching eye and the subtle sound of her teeth gnashing was the only indication that his statement had been heard. That he materialized and caused a scene of destruction upon his summoning was a clue that there indeed was a hiccup in the summoning ritual.

With her cry of irritation she slammed the door and went to bed, she really needed to sleep.

The next morning there was another surprise because her servant informed her that he doesn't remember his past life. Not a single shred of memory of who he was remained, which meant Rin couldn't possibly know what his legend was, if he has a very recognizable one that is. She couldn't really guess as his clothing provided many possibilities as to which era that he was from, as what he was wearing doesn't exactly fit to any era of the past she knew of. Thankfully his abilities and skills were intact so it wasn't a big problem.

It was a few hours after that revelation that found both her and her servant on one of the tallest buildings in Fuyuki City, Archer claimed it had the highest, unobstructed, viewpoint available within the city. From this height he could see where the best places for him to utilize his abilities were. They didn't spend much time there before they went searching for another servant to fight, they looked all night but came up empty so they decided to formulate battle strategies to deal with the different servant classes they would inevitably have to fight in this war.

Since then her servant had hovered over her as she went to school the next day to make sure no other servants attacked.

Rin thought school was overrated and boring, she laughed at how easy she found it and had to deal with the stress of homework on top of the dangerous of magecraft. Being one of the most desired girls in school didn't help much. The guys all ogled her like hungry wolfs with their prey. She was barely able to maintain her focus as the teacher seemed to drone on and on about something that happened somewhere she couldn't care about. She had to focus to use no small amount of willpower to keep her mind at the subject that the teacher's talking about.

Her search for enemy servants last night didn't result in anything useful, no servants or masters showed up to face Archer and her which she didn't know if she was thankful for or frustrated. But it was early in the war and this time she was sure she would encounter a servant, she had no idea how right she was.

That night after school she and Archer were on the roof of Homurahara Academy when they felt an enemy's presence nearby. Another servant was approaching closer to the proximity of the school. Seeing as she had wanted her servant to fight another all day they made their way to the source of the presence the felt.

When they arrived at the courtyard, they saw a blue haired man wearing an equally blue skin tight bodysuit. He had a crimson spear in his right hand which indicates his class and is most likely his noble phantasm.

He greeted them with a grin, "I am servant Lancer and I hope you can give me a good fight."

"Where's your master, Lancer?" Rin asked the spearman as other than him, there was no one in sight.

He wagged his finger, as if reprimanding her, "Now it would be rather rude of me to tell you little lass," he said, making Rin somewhat annoyed, "but I can tell you that we noticed you two yesterday when you guys were scouring the city in search of a servant."

Rin's eyes widened, turning her head slightly towards Archer she whispered, "Did you…"

"No, I didn't sense them," answered the red clad servant, "I'd be willing to bet that his master used some spells to conceal their presence as well spy on us."

"True," confirmed Lancer, "We kept our distance to gain information and once we found out you were in this place I thought that I may as well introduce myself."

Then the blue-haired spearman entered a combat stance, "Now red boy, let's fight." he said to Archer.

With impressive speed Rin dashed to a place safe enough for her to observe the fight. She watched as Lancer charged towards Archer and her servant fought against another servant of the grail.

Instead of using a bow or some other ranged weapon that would suit his class, Archer summoned a pair of black and white swords, and met Lancer's attack head on.

"A swordsman, you must be Saber then," stated Lancer.

Archer smirked, "I could be."

As the two combatants fought, Rin watched their every move. For a servant who specialises in long range attacks he was surprisingly good at close quarters combat.

Their weapons clashed, their movements becoming erratic, fast, powerful, due to the skills that they have accumulated during their lifetime. Lancer thrust his crimson spear trying to impale Archer who either dodged or blocked with his swords. Despite the fact that her servant wasn't supposed to be able to fight just like a Saber, he was managing to go toe-to-toe with Lancer, the most agile of the classes.

Two figures, one red with black and white swords, and another blue with a red spear, fought each other relentlessly. Their blows were becoming faster and stronger as the fight went on, their arms nearly invisible as they smashed their weapons together, creating shockwaves from the sheer force in them.

"You're impressive mate," Lancer commended Archer, "But your life ends here."

Then the Lancer charged _._

Archer was almost unable to block Lancer's spear but managed to move the spear tip away from him at the last second. As Lancer saw that his spear was blocked he grinned.

"That was impressive Saber," Lancer said as he forced his opponent to parry the spear and take a couple of steps backward, "but you can't dodge me forever."

"True blue boy," Archer replied getting an annoyed look from the servant of the lance, "and just so you know, I'm not Saber."

Taking advantage of Lancer's slight confusion he moved to land a hit on his opponent's unguarded side. Lancer used his spear blocked the strike from the swords that would've inflicted a grave wound on his person, but the moment his spear touched them they exploded, leaving a cloud of smoke behind. The blue clad servant leaped out of the smoke and was surprised as he felt pain for the first time since his summoning. He put a finger to his cheek, where there was a miniscule cut which bled a little, and his torso had a few other wounds that bled slightly. These weren't much in the way of actual damage but they were annoying.

Lancer grinned and charged, now he had a real opponent to fight.

00000

Looking down from where he was sitting on the roof Eragon, in his true appearance watched these two servants fight. He could hear the sound of clashing steel ring out, repeating itself several times in quick succession, as they played the never ending song of battle. He could hear them before he even got to the school, how no one else noticed seemed to be because the campus was large and there was no one here. Standing and moving towards the edge of the building, Eragon hid his presence as he observed the two servants. His eyes locked on the two combatants who were moving with incredible speed, sparks flying as their weapons clashed again and again in a deadly dance of death.

The tall, lithe man dressed in a blue armoured body suit charged, his short spiky hair and ponytail were blown back as he moved with amazing grace and agility that Eragon rarely saw amongst humans. His crimson lance struck out with such speed that it would have been nothing but a blur to a normal human being, too fast for their eyes to see.

His target was the tall man with a similar build, with black armour underneath a red long sleeve coat. In his hands he wielded two short curved blades, blades he brought together, grunting with effort as he blocked the lancer's strike. He brought his weapons to the side to block an incoming follow up attack, which staggered him slightly from the force of the blow.

The one in blue was twirling his lance with frightening ease as he continued his assault but the red clad servant continued to parry the blows. From the look of thing each of those blows hitting the white haired one was slowly doing damage.

"That one's definitely Lancer," Eragon identified the blue servant, as the red clad servant's two short swords shattered from the next attack, leaving him weapon less. "But what about you?"

Lancer's next attack came swiftly, a powerful thrust that Eragon was positive would end the fight now that the other servant had been disarmed. He was understandably surprised when the lance was battered aside as the blades that had previously been shattered once more resting in the hands of their master, completely undamaged. Lancer continued his assault, unmoved by the fact that the enemy had somehow armed himself again in seconds.

His eyes widened and Eragon caught himself before he almost released a low whistle in his surprise. He didn't know if this ability at work was a noble phantasm or the servant's own skill. Eragon had no idea what type of class Lancer was fighting. The first class that came to mind was Saber since he seemed to favour melee combat and wielded two short swords, but while he was exceptionally skilled with them something was off about the way he fought. He couldn't quite place what it was, but he just didn't seem to fit the Saber class.

For obvious reasons, Caster, Lancer and Assassin were ruled out.

His master had used the Assassin slot to unnaturally summon him. He was no Assassin, yet Caster had used that available slot to her benefit, bending the rules to her will. It should be impossible for an Assassin to be summoned now, yet this man fit the category better than the others.

Berserker was discarded almost immediately as the man was way too calm and his fighting style held none of the rage or anger that Berserker class warriors embodied.

Archer was briefly considered, but the lack of bow was telling. Melee combat was not something an Archer would engage in unless they had no other option, and while Lancer was agile enough to box an opponent in, Eragon had a feeling that the unknown servant could create more space if needed.

Rider was the next to cross his mind. A possible choice but as with Saber it didn't seem right. With the amount of trouble he was having facing Lancer he'd have summoned his mount to battle, at least that's what Eragon would have done. As the class that excelled at mounted combat it was potentially fatal to not summon his mount in situations like this.

Then again he could be wrong because as a class, Rider is the least predictable. Each of the classes defines the function of the servant summoned, it allows you to see a glimpse of the basic abilities of most of them. Saber always fights with a sword, while Archer will use ranged attacks. Caster uses magic, Berserker charges in with brute strength, Lancer fights with speed and spear, and Assassin hides in the shadows.

The Rider class however, is defined as a hero with a legendary mount. They can use any weapon and skill, all that requires is that they also possess something to 'ride' and it could be anything. It didn't even have to be an animal, it could be a vehicle of some sort. They normally didn't summon needlessly as they have a tendency to be destructive but when a Rider is fighting on foot, the battle would not be at their full potential, and they can sometimes drag the strongest servant into a tie.

Out of all the classes Assassin seemed to fit this one best. While the Assassin class tended to avoid direct combat, preferring to strike from the shadows, they weren't completely useless at it either, even if melee isn't their greatest attribute. They could hold their own in most situations, until they could make their escape. If this servant was summoned under the Assassin class Eragon would think that he had tried and failed to finish Lancer off from the shadows and had been drawn out of hiding.

However as Caster had bent the rules to summon him under the Assassin class he didn't know what to make of this unknown servant. He hadn't shown much of his abilities, at least nothing that really pointed to what his class was. It did look like he was able to form swords with a thought though. From his knowledge of modern magic that sounded like projection, but that would mean he was a magus. That would have made him a Caster class servant but that slot was already filled. Then again it could just be that his weapons have a unique ability, they could be enchanted blades or something similar.

This servant was confusing the hell out of him. It was impossible for him to identify the man at this time, without seeing more of his abilities, which were being expertly hidden.

Eragon sighed, moving his gaze from the clashing servants to the girl off to the side. She was pretty, exceedingly so, even in the darkness, her attractive features were plain to his eyes. The girl and the unknown servant were partners, yet Lancer had been alone as far as he could tell. Though it was unorthodox to engage in combat without a master present to provide support, it did happen on occasion. Particularly if the servant worked better alone enabling them to throw themselves wholeheartedly into a fight without worrying about their link to this world being taken out in the crossfire.

A popular tactic was to avoid a servant and focus on the master, they were weaker and much easier to take out. It was an effective method of winning the war as it reduced the risk of defeat and greatly enhanced chance of victory. As he was summoned under the Assassin class this was what he was expected to do even if it was against his morals.

Eragon sighed again. Looking down at the battle he could see that those two were still at it, even if the one in red looked to be at a disadvantage.

"Should I join the fray or not?" standing on top of the roof he watched, "Hmmm, well I was ordered not to reveal myself, but I did come here for a reason." And it might give him more information on the mystery servant.

"Ready, aim," pointing a finger at the two fighters, "Brisingr,"

Brisingr, the word for fire in the ancient language, the word he used to perform his first piece of magic. He knew that word, its properties and its power intimately, going so far as to use it burn an entire army. With that single word a small, condensed ball of sapphire blue fire shot out from his finger straight at the servants below. While most of his magic was B rank on average and he could perform magic beyond A+ rank if he had to this attack, a spell he was a master among masters of, was effectively an EX rank blast. Not only did it cost the same amount of mana as his standard spells to create, it was also gonna hurt like hell.

00000

Lancer was just about to make another charge when he saw the attack coming, a point of blue light, rushing towards both him and his opponent. As a magic user himself, he recognized an attack spell when he saw one, and despite its small size this one was extremely powerful, powerful enough to take both him and red boy out at the same time, despite their magic resistance.

He suddenly disengaged, jumping back a good thirty feet.

Archer was confused for a split second, before the spell blasted the ground right behind him, sending him to the floor badly burned in pain and leaving a large smoking hole in the ground.

Lancer wasn't concerned with Archer anymore, he dashed past Rin heading towards the source of the spell, even he had been slightly burned by it despite his C rank magic resistance. That was an enemy attacking from a distance, and with long distance foes the first shot was never the last. Judging by the fact that it was magic, more powerful than anyone in this era should be capable of, it had to be Caster.

Lancer stopped when he came face to face with a man, one with pointed ears. "Caster, I presume?"

"You presume correctly Lancer," replied Eragon, he needed to convince Lancer he was Caster after all, "are you ready to be cut down?" his stance was a loose one, not revealing any sort of training behind it, but underneath he was a coiled snake, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

"You can try," grinning, Lancer had to admit, this was a lucky break, two servants in one night. He was now much closer to finishing this stupid scouting mission, and if his little information gathering session against Caster, the class most ill-suited to physical combat, went too far, well that's one less servant to deal with.

Lancer attacked, the tip of his spear becoming a blur of red. In an instant Caster moved, a blue sword appearing in his hand. He parried the spear that was thrust at him with uncanny accuracy and made Lancer take a couple of steps backward. Not giving Lancer a chance to recover from his shock Eragon, with a burst of speed, struck with his sword and grazed the spearman's shoulder.

Grazed is poor term to use, seeing as the blade tore a strip out of Lancer's shoulder as he dodged at the last instant. If he hadn't moved the sword would have sliced completely through his flesh since it went through his armour like it was nothing.

Lancer lowered his lance, "Argh! Come on man, you use a sword too? For the love of… why the hell aren't you and that other one Saber!?"

"I'm not sure but you sound offended," Eragon commented.

"Of course I am!" He held up his weapon, "I'm Lancer, note the fact that I use a lance." He spun it around and pointed it at Caster. "I am a Lancer, therefore my noble phantasm, the physical manifestation of the most famous tale that defines me as a hero, is a lance. You don't see me prancing around with a wand do you."

"I don't use a wand."

"Well forgive me for my mistake," mocked Lancer.

"Can we just fight already," Eragon said as he threw his free hand up and blasted Lancer into the wall with bone crunching impact.

The blue spearman pulled himself out of the wall and hurled himself at the sword wielding Caster. A Lancer was reportedly the fastest of all the servants, but when he bounded towards the Caster, who apparently knew his way around a sword and got within range, he almost died for it. This servant's speed exceeded his own, if he didn't know better he would swear this was Saber he was fighting, he was certainly strong enough and had at least some skill to back it up. His blue sword blurred and swiped towards him, it was only due to his instincts honed by countless battles that he was able to block his lethal strikes. Lancer would block the strike heading for one area and then the blade would be withdrawn and slashed at another vital area. He had to block all these strikes while avoiding getting hit by Caster's flame covered free hand, he already had burns from where it grazed his arm.

As the servants leaped away from each other Lancer touched the wounds on his left rib and shoulder. They trickled blood, but would not hinder his movements aside from the minimal pain.

"You're tougher than you look," Eragon commented.

"And you are not acting like a Caster at all," the pissed off servant in blue yelled. "You're supposed to blast things with magic not swing around a stupid sword."

Eragon clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes, gripping his sword firmly. "Did you just call my sword stupid," he stepped forward and unleashed a flurry of blows that would make any blade master weep with envy.

Lancer was pushed back on the defensive, the strength behind the Caster's sword swings was immense and he knew he'd just pissed this guy off. The speed and power behind the blows, and the fact that more magic was being used and actually hurting him, said that his opponent was holding back earlier. While before Lancer was able to match him in strength and skill, now he was out classed in almost all areas. Even while swinging his sword like a madman Eragon still showed extensive swordsmanship expertise, enough to classify him as Saber with ease.

' _For a Caster his strength is greater than my own_ ,' Lancer thought.

He was being beating senseless despite putting all his effort into defending but he wouldn't stop grinning. Here was an opponent that he would have to go all out on just to survive, damn this was fun.

Deciding to try a different tactic he used his free hand to form runes in the air at a rapid pace. The surroundings temperature dropped a few degrees as all the heat had been transferred to one location.

"Burn, you asshole," he declared, as the rune array activated.

A torrent of fire leaped out from the runes raging towards Eragon who didn't even bother to move completely. He just leaned out of the way causing the fire to impact against his shoulder, he stumbled slightly but quickly regained his balance.

The Irish spear wielder twitched. "Great, just my luck. Not only are you a Caster who's strong as fuck and can use a sword, but also resistant to magic. You have got to be kidding me."

Eragon smiled "I thought we already established I'm not your average Caster,"

Without waiting for a reply he dashed as Lancer who dodged the sword, then barely blocked a flaming punch then ended up getting kicked with what felt like more than A rank strength. The sole of his opponent's boot thundered into his abdomen, tossing him away like a rag doll. Rolling across the ground he leaped away, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have taken off his head. Before he could ready a strike a fire coated fist slammed into him hard enough to break half his ribs and rupture an organ or two.

He'd launched dozens of attacks throughout this fight, all done with skill born of countless battles and all he managed to do was give Caster a few minor cuts. He had his pride as a warrior, and he would not stand for this.

Faking an attack to the right he managed to open up a gash on Eragon's left arm. He got some satisfaction as the 'not doing things the way he should' Caster winced as the warm blood beginning to flow down his arm. The wound healed up when Eragon ran his finger over it.

Lancer's muscles tightened further, showing him preparing to fight an opponent who was obviously a force to be reckoned with considering the damage he'd dealt. He broke the first rule of combat, never underestimate your opponent, and look at him now, beat up, injured and having the most fun he's had since he was summoned.

He leapt into action as Eragon dove for him, the sword user barely managing to deflect his attack as the spearhead sliced right past his face and almost gouged his eye out. Swinging his sword quickly Eragon whipped it through the air before Lancer raised his spear, their weapons colliding with a loud crack that echoed across the campus. Eragon winced as he had the wind knocked out of him as Lancer sank a foot into his stomach, knocking him away from the spear wielder as he brought the spear around, the tip flashing right past his face. As Lancer swung it down at him, spinning and bringing it around once more, pain lashed out across Eragon's face as the crimson spearhead tore his face open, blood splashing out across the roof.

Staring at the smug looking Lancer, Eragon raised his hand to trace the gushing wound that started next to his left eye and moved down across his face to end on his jawline on the right side of his face. He ran a hand across the wound, the gash slowly stitching itself together again, the skin smoothing out as he narrowed his eyes at Lancer.

A glint of crimson made Eragon react instantly, snatching the spear from the air as it was thrust at his face. He hit Lancer with a spinning kick, burying his ankle into his neck hard enough to launch him into the floor. Spinning the stolen spear he looked down at Lancer.

"Is that really all you got?" Eragon said with a grin, while he may not show it he loved to fight as much as Lancer did.

Eragon spun the spear in his hands and threw it back to its owner, the weapon pierced the rooftop between his feet.

As Lancer's hand wrapped around the crimson shaft of his spear, Eragon pointed at him and a loud thunderclap filled the air as a single lightning bolt shot down to hit the spear, arcing into Lancer's body, lifting him off the ground. That didn't keep him down for long as he was back up and swinging his spear in moments.

Eragon twisted his body to avoid a serious hit from the spear but it still hit his midsection, tossing him backward and off the ground with the blow. Righting himself in mid-air Eragon blasted weak fireball at Lancer who knocked it aside with his spear, however the follow up attack didn't registered until it was too late.

Eragon reeled his free hand back for a punch and Lancer was only barely able to bring his left arm back up to guard against it. His forearm took the brunt of the punch, which hurt like hell, knocking the lance user backward. He wasn't expecting such power in the slender athletic form but considering the strength he'd show so far it wasn't much of a surprise.

As he landed in a slightly unbalanced stance Eragon struck with his sword, his arm swiped forward aiming for Lancer's torso. It didn't have the desired result as the blue clad servant rolled back causing the sword to cut a thin line in Lancer's chest.

The spearman responded with a wild thrust aimed at the sword user's heart, but Eragon turned his torso to the right causing the spear to fly by where his chest had just been.

Eragon didn't hesitate as he blasted Lancer off the roof and back to the courtyard where he'd faced the red servant, who was still lying there, he jumped down after him a second later. Making use of his superior speed he charged at Lancer and lashed out with his sword fully intending to take his head off and if that failed, blast him into nothing.

"What the hell is with you!" the spearman shouted as he dodged another blow, his eyes were visibly twitching.

His foe didn't reply, instead he sidestepped a spear thrust and slammed into the spearman with the force of a cannonball. A flick of his sword and a punch later, and Lancer was effectively disarmed as Gae Bolg had been knocked from his grasp, Lancer found himself defenceless. He staggered up from the ground, bleeding from his mouth where the punch had connected while his spear was in the hands of the other servant.

He made full use of his agility as he leaped over Eragon and was going to retrieve his weapon from above but the half elf would have none of that. His hand snapped upwards and backhanded Lancer with enough force to send him crashing to the ground.

Eragon sank the toes of his black boots into the Lancer's family jewels, making him collapse to the ground clutching his gonads.

"You aren't a bad opponent Lancer," Eragon said leaning on the spear, "but if you can't beat me then you really won't be able to beat the other servants now will you."

He tossed the spear back to the now standing Lancer who deftly caught it and assumed a stance. Despite his injuries, and crushed nuts, he didn't give the feeling that he was out of the fight just yet.

"Why are you giving this back when you could have finished me," Lancer was confused and he wasn't the only one, Rin and her servant also wondered why this strange servant didn't finish off Lancer when he had the chance.

"Because this is just so much fun," smirked the half elf.

Both servants who could still stand grinned and they were just about to start fighting again when a red haired walked around the corner. Shirou Emiya, the person who has the worst timing in the world.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The three servants and one master stared at him.

"Umm," Shirou looked at the situation, "am I interrupting something?"

"Great, just great," Lancer sighed, "we're going to have to put our fight on hold right now, we have a witness. I hope you're happy kid, you ruined my fun and now I have to kill you."

Shirou's survival skills kicked in and he ran straight past them, dashing into the school at near inhuman speeds.

"Well that was fast," Lancer pulled back his lance, "Well, I guess I'll see you later and we can continue our fight. I definitely think you could be Saber with the way you fight."

He dashed off in the same direction as the boy.

"Well Lancer just ran off to kill a kid so I suggest you go stop him," Eragon said to Rin, his sword disappearing from his hand.

"Just who the hell are you anyway," Rin asked.

"Caster."

"Oh I see. Wait. What?"

"I'll see you two later, maybe then I can fight your servant. Oh this will help."

With a quick spell he healed Archer and turned to leave, only to be stopped by Rin.

"Why did you do that?" asked a very confused Rin. This was the Holy Grail war where servants were meant to fight each other to the death, and yet this one not only gave Lancer his weapon back when he was down but also healed her servant. She didn't know what he was playing at by doing this. He had the perfect opportunity to take out two servant in one night and he let one go and healed the other.

"I'm not about to leave a pretty little thing like you out here all alone, not with a servant that can't fight anyway. Don't forget to save that boy." He walked off leaving a blushing Rin behind.


	2. Chapter 2

This is what I think the stats sheet for Eragon should look like. I got inspiration from infinite paths by Lord Mist who does great fate stay night crossover one shots.

* * *

 **Class:** Assassin  
 **Alternate Classes:** All except Lancer and Berserker  
 **True Name:** Eragon Bromsson  
 **Alignment:** Orderly Good

 **Parameters**  
 **Strength:** B+  
 **Agility:** A+++  
 **Endurance:** B+  
 **Mana:** A+++  
 **Luck:** B

 **Class Skills**

Independent Action (A+): Eragon can remain in this world indefinitely even without a Master. However, in order to activate his Noble Phantasms he may have to acquire prana from alternative sources if he drains his Mana.

Item Creation (C): Eragon can make minor potions, poisons, traps and low level magic items but that's about it. Because the riders used jewels in their magic this rank is A when creating items made of jewels, effectively giving him a rank A in jewel craft.

Magic Resistance (B): Cancel spells with a chant below three verses. Even if targeted by High-Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals, it is difficult for him to be affected.

Presence Concealment (C): Hides one's presence as a Servant, suitable for spying. The rank of presence concealment drops considerably when preparing to attack. However, this condition does not apply to poisoning something.

Riding (EX): Eragon can use creatures on the level of Phantasmal and Divine Beasts as mounts, with ease, he does have a bond with a dragon after all. Also all vehicles and mundane animals can be handled with consummate skill. Manoeuvres that should be borderline impossible can be performed with little effort.

 **Personal Skills**

Battle Continuation (A): Makes it possible to fight even with deadly injuries and can remain alive so long as one does not receive a decisive fatal wound.

Bravery (B): The ability to negate mental interference such as pressure, confusion and fascination. At this rank, most mundane interference can be ignored.

Charisma (B): The natural talent to command an army. Eragon possesses enough charisma to rival a king of a country. He was temporarily the leader of the Varden, which gave him much expertise and knowledge.

Clairvoyance (C): Clairvoyance connotes superior visual perception and dynamic occipital capture, such as to supplement the long-range aiming of projectile weapons. At this rank, Eragon is capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of 4kms.

Disengage (C): Eragon can easily break off from heated combat.

Divinity (B): Dragon riders were considered divine in their time.

Enhanced Body (B): The possession of a body enhanced beyond normal parameters by some means. Eragon's body was enhanced due to ancient magic of the dragons which increased his strength, agility and reflexes.

Eternal Arms Mastery (A): Mastership of combat arts has reached the point of being said to be unrivalled in one's era. By complete merging of mind, body and technique, it is possible to make use of full fighting skills even when under the influence of any sort of mental hindrance.

Expert of Many Specializations (A): Eragon lived for many millennia and mastered many different skills throughout his incredibly long life. Most of these are rank B or above.

Eye of the Mind (False) (B): Eye of the Mind (False) is a natural talent to avoid danger on the basis of an innate 6th sense where accuracy of instinct has been augmented by experience. At this rank Eragon can calmly analyse battle conditions to deduce the appropriate course of action that permits escape from a lethal predicament.

High-Speed Divine Words (A): High-Speed Divine Words is the power to activate Thaumaturgy without the use of Magic Circuits. The language of the Age of Gods, back when words played a heavy role in spell casting, it is power long lost by modern magi. Eragon is an expert in the usage of the ancient language to cast spells, capable of dealing with multiple enemies simultaneously with a single spell.

High-Speed Incantation (B): High-Speed Incantation is the capacity to recite spells at high speeds. Eragon can cast spells rapidly.

Instinct (A): Refined sixth sense is now incredibly close to true precognition. At this rank, it is close to true precognition.

Magecraft (C): Magecraft is knowledge about modern Thaumaturgy. Eragon only has the basic understanding of modern magic but can still use it to some degree.

Military Tactics (B): Eragon was a great commander for the Varden and can create strategies for victory with only some difficulty.

Mystic Eyes (B): Mystic Eyes (Eyes of the Dragon) is the possession of Mystic Eyes that are capable of interfering with the outside world. This allows Eragon to see the world as a dragon would. When this is active his eyes become blue slits and he can see what others cannot, things that are hidden or concealed can be seen in some way.

Presence Detection (B): Presence Detection is the ability to detect other Servants and local mana sources. Eragon can locate other Servants, Masters and areas of concentrated mana within 200 meters of his location.

Protection from Arrows (A): Protection from Arrows is an increased defence against ranged attacks by predicting the projectiles' trajectories through exceptional means, such as hearing the sound of air being cut, or sensing the killing intent of the enemy. As long as the shooter is within his line of sight Eragon can track down ranged weapons and defend against them.

Silent Casting (B): Silent Casting is the ability to use magic without even speaking an incantation or activating any Magic Circuits. At this rank magic rank B or below can be used instantly without an incantation, but magic of higher rank still requires an incantation.

Subversive Activities (C): The talent to reduce the enemy forces in the preliminary stages, before going into battle. At this rank it is possible to disable nearly 20% of the total enemy force before they advance.

Supreme summon (A): This is an extremely rare personal skill possessed only by a select few Servants that permits them to simultaneously possess class skills from different classes. This skill lets Eragon possess all his class skills no matter what class he is summoned under.

 **Noble Phantasms**

Yew Bow of Islanzadi (B): The weakest of Eragon's Noble Phantasms. It is an enchanted yew bow and a quiver of magic arrows gifted to him by the queen of the elves. The arrows unerringly seek the target's heart and they have to be deflected or blocked as they follow the path of those who dodge. They do not possess extraordinary penetrating power, so can be stopped by strong enough defences. This Noble Phantasm's effects are passive in nature.

Brisingr (A++): Eragon's blue bladed sword. Made with his own hands and an elven blacksmith's assistance, it is almost unbreakable, equalling the famed Excalibur with its sheer strength and endurance. Whenever Eragon calls out the name of this sword, it will burn with a blue fire, allowing him to cut through almost anything. The fires spread with each swing of his sword burning whatever they touch. This effect consumes much of Eragon's prana so he must use it sparingly or draw prana from his other Noble Phantasms.

Belt of Beloth the wise (EX): Eragon's jewelled belt serves as a source for prana, allowing him to have constant access to an always available source of magic. Prana will flow from the jewels on his belt into him, renewing his strength. It also gathers mana from the surrounding area constantly and stores it as prana within each of the twelve gems. Each individual gem can hold a maximum of 200 units of prana. The gems can be destroyed but the prana stored within them explodes when they are. The jewels will refill themselves with prana when they are empty. It takes one day for one gem to recharge. The prana storage effect of this Noble Phantasm is passive but Eragon has to actively transfer the prana from the gems into him.

Aren (EX): Aren is an elven ring, embedded with a sapphire specially cut for the purpose of holding large amounts of energy. Eragon acquired it after Brom's death. The sapphire jewel stores prana in much the same way as the gems on his belt, drawing mana from the environment, but it does it much quicker and in larger quantities. The sapphire can hold a maximum of 5000 units of prana. The sapphire will refill itself with prana when it has been drained but it takes three days to recharge. The prana storage of this Noble Phantasm if passive but Eragon has to actively transfer the prana into him.

Rider's Bond (EX): Eragon's mount and partner, Saphira, a massive blue dragon. She is capable of shooting blasts of blue flame, and is both strong and well armoured. She is also capable of communicating telepathically with Eragon. Her stats compared to servants are: Strength A, Agility A, Endurance A, Mana A, and Luck E, and she has Magic Resistance Rank A. She's a dragon, deal with it.


	3. Chapter 3

Shirou Emiya, a student at Homurahara Academy, with short spiky red hair and amber eyes who would seem rather unremarkable if one was to judge him from a first glance. But he had a secret that he kept hidden from everybody, he was a magus. He wasn't a particularly skilled or powerful magus since all he knew was structural analysis and reinforcement magic. He normally used his magic to repair things around the school sometimes even staying late into the afternoon to finish it, and that was the problem tonight.

The sound of the bell rang through the school signalling the end of the day and as such the students of the Homurahara Academy began to pack their bags and head home.

All except Shirou Emiya.

"Shirou," called a bespectacled student as he walked closer to him, "come on let's get out of here."

"Issei," he greeted his friend, "I can't leave yet I have to fix a heater."

Issei Ryuudou, a friend of Shirou's who is also the student body president.

"Honestly Shirou, you don't have to do all of it in one day. You can finish it tomorrow."

Shirou just smiled and shook his head. "Its fine Issei, I prefer dealing with problems and getting them out of the way all at once anyway."

Issei sighed, "Very well then, see you tomorrow," he said before leaving.

Shirou nodded as the other teen left before going to look at the broken heater in the room. Kneeling in front of the heater he placed a hand on the broken machine and imagining the trigger that would activate his magic.

"Trace on."

With a feeling similar to electricity being sent to his nervous system, the mental trigger needed for Shirou's circuits to be activated. He used his magic to analyse the heater, its entire structure becoming known to him in an instant and he figured out the problem and started to fix it.

It took hours before he finished with everything, and by that time, it was already late. About three hours after he started he had repaired not only the heater but all other electronic appliances in the room, working his butt off without even taking a minute to stop. He screwed the cover back on the last appliance he had fixed and packed away his things.

"Alright, that's done," he said as he took his bag and walked out of the room and towards the exit of the school like he'd done many times, except this time it was different.

As he neared the exit he was so deep in thought about the test he had tomorrow that he never noticed the sound of steel meeting steel rang out across the school, despite the uneasy feeling that ran down his spine. As he left the building he made his way towards the main gate and prepared to make another late night trip to his home, but as he turned a corner he froze at the sight that greeted him.

He saw a man in red face down on the floor with some girl trying to get him up and two other men in battle stances. One was dressed in blue and had a red spear while the other was dressed in light leather armour and wielding a blue sword. Both of the armed men looked ready to charge when he came around the corner, but as soon as they saw him there was only silence. All four of them stared at him.

"Umm," Shirou had no idea what was going on, "am I interrupting something?"

"Great, just great," the lance user sighed, "We're going to have to put our fight on hold right now, we have a witness. I hope you're happy kid, you ruined my fun and now I have to kill you."

Hearing that Shirou dropped his toolbox and ran like hell, reinforcing his body as much as he could to increase his speed. Shirou was used to reinforcing his body as he did it frequently, and it had gotten to the point that he could ignore most of the burning pain that came with doing it over long periods of time. Right now though, he just wanted to get out of there so he ran back into the school, all the while hoping that he wouldn't be caught by the spear user.

Running up the stairs to the second floor, Shirou looked behind him to see if the spear user was actually following after him. Seeing nothing, he slowed down, gasping for breath as his body sweated from the exertion.

"I think I lost him."

"That was some impressive running kid but no, you didn't lose me." He turned around to find the blue haired lance user glaring at him with a wide grin. "That was quite fast for a human," he commended Shirou's capabilities, "But this is where your life ends kid. Sorry, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you spoiled my fight."

Suddenly Shirou felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, he saw a long crimson spear lodged in his chest. With a tug the spear wielder pulled his weapon free from Shirou's chest, flecks of blood flinging from the tip. Shirou moved his hand to his chest and found that there was a hole where his heart would be, it was only then that Shirou realize the spear had gone straight through his heart. He could feel his own blood on his hands as it gushed out from the large hole in his chest and coppery taste in his mouth as he coughed blood.

Falling to his knees, Shirou clutched at his chest as breathing suddenly became more difficult, he coughed up blood with each gasp as he tried to find the breath that just wouldn't come. His mind almost couldn't comprehend what was happening as he stared up into the crimson eyes of his killer.

"Don't look at me like that kid, I can't leave any witnesses if they see me fight. You have only yourself to blame, or you can blame your rotten luck that you would be in this place and ruined my fight," the spearman said, "I made sure to pierce right through your heart so at least your death will be quick." With those words, the spear user turned and walked off, disappearing from view.

Shirou fell completely to the ground, still clutching his chest and trying to breathe, his body becoming numb as he started to lose consciousness during his final moments. His senses began to shut down though even as they faded he faintly heard footsteps approaching and a voice speaking quietly, but even that faded as his vision went dark.

00000

Rin burst into a hallway just in time to see the boy fall, she and Archer had chased after him and Lancer when Caster left but they were too late. She could see a male figure on the ground, a pool of blood slowly spreading underneath him. As the second owner of this city, it was her duty to keep the existence of magic in her city a secret, to prevent the normal people from discovering the truth and keep them safe from the magical world. Yet she failed to protect this student.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you," Rin whispered as she knelt beside the body. Upon seeing his identity she gave a shocked gasp. "No. Why did it have to be you?" she sobbed sadly as she discovered the identity of the body was that of Shirou Emiya.

He was one of the few people in this school she liked, someone who made her sister, Sakura, show genuine happiness. One of the few people she actually liked was dead, a massive hole in his cheat where his heart should be continued to leak out blood that began to soak his school uniform.

"There's nothing that we could do Rin," her servant said without even a slight amount of emotion.

She ignored him. Reaching into her pocket, Rin took out a pendant, a red triangular ruby attached to a silver chain necklace. The jewel contained a lot of prana and it was supposed to be used in a tight situation during this war.

Could she use the power of her greatest weapon on something she wasn't even sure would work. She thought of how her sister would react when she found out Shirou was dead and knew wouldn't be able to her in the eye knowing she had done nothing to save him. Sighing she made up her mind.

Rin held the gem over Shirou's chest wound and activated her magic circuits to channel the truly massive amount of prana contained within the jewel into the body and tried to heal him. There was a soft glow and she stared in amazement at the scene. Before her very eyes his heart was rapidly repairing and began to beat on its own, the muscle and skin over his heart began to stitch itself back together leaving only a large starburst scar directly where the mortal wound once was.

Rin collapsed backwards in exhaustion, it had taken every speck of prana contained within the pendant but she had done it. Shirou had been healed and he would live. She let the now worthless pendant fall to the ground next to Shirou and began walking away.

"That wasn't a good decision Rin," said Archer as they walked, "you used a valuable resource on the boy when it could have been used to gain an advantage against our enemies."

She gritted her teeth before she turned to Archer, "I know that and I don't care. If I hadn't at least tried I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Do you harbour some feelings for that boy?" he asked.

"No I do not!" she practically shouted, and quickened her pace. Her blushing face not helping her denial at all.

00000

A pair of amber eyes opened and then closed in pain. That was all that Shirou Emiya could feel as he lay there, he felt like he'd been run over by a truck. He groaned as he picked himself up, his mind confused as the last thing he remembered was dying from a spear piercing his heart, but he was fine now. Looking at his chest he saw a large starburst shaped scar where the hole had been, aside from his bloodstained clothes it was the only other evidence he had been stabbed. Shirou frowned. How had he survived, people die when they're killed so why wasn't he dead.

He decided to dwell on that later and frantically looked around him for signs of the spearman and sighed in relief when there were none, before running back to his house. Before leaving, he noticed a red pendant on the ground next to where his body was, he put it in his pocket in the hope that it would help him find answers about this situation.

Shirou ran at a rapid pace for a few minutes until his house came into view, his body burning from using reinforcement. The large old style Japanese home easy to identify among its neighbours. Once home Shirou opened the sliding doors leading to the interiors of his house and immediately went to his room and changed clothes. After he changed he went to the kitchen, opened the fridge and poured cold water into a cup, he couldn't drink it fast enough and poured two more.

He was still shocked that he was alive after that spear stabbed him. He didn't even know what was going on with those two fighting and he was killed, 'you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time' was what the spearman had said. He had to do something to prevent anyone else from being killed by that man, if he could do that then maybe he could be the hero he always told his father he would one day be.

He smiled at the memory of his father before his instincts screamed at him to move. He dodged, reinforcing his tired legs and leaping to the side, narrowly avoiding the spear that would have stabbed through his skull as a slightly wounded Lancer crashed through the windows. The wounds he received from Caster had healed slightly, to moderate damage instead of major in the short time since the fight ended so he could ignore them for now.

The blue clad servant grinned, "I'm pretty sure that I pierced your heart earlier. I don't know how you survived boy but you have to die, I can't leave witnesses."

He'd barely finished talking when Shirou started running away. He was trying to get to his workshop hoping that he would find something there that would help him survive this. Leaping out of a doorway leading outside, barely avoiding Lancer as he stabbed at where he had been just a second ago, he ran to the shed.

"You're a fast one aren't you," Lancer growled. "You know I tried to make your death quick, right through the heart so you wouldn't feel pain. But you decided that you couldn't stay dead and that reflects badly on me. I'm going to make sure that you stay down this time, let's see if you can survive after getting your head cut off."

He swung his spear hitting Shirou with enough force to lift him off his feet and send him crashing through the door that led to his shed, hitting his back against the wall. Unbeknownst to him, a summoning circle on the shed's floor started lighting up.

Shirou coughed as he looked up to see Lancer in the doorway.

"This is the end for you kid," he said as he quickly moved to stab his weapon into Shirou's neck.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of light emanated from the magic circle within the shed and the spear user had a surprised expression on his face as his blow was blocked faster than his eyes could see. He leapt out of the shed to give himself more space to defend against an unknown enemy while Shirou's sight was filled with the vision of his saviour.

Bathed in the rising moonlight entering the shed, he could see her face. The girl, no, young woman had a beautiful yet fierce expression on her face and bright green eyes that shone like emeralds. Her hair was the colour of gold and it framed her beautiful face while tied up in an elaborate braided bun at the back of her head.

She wore a silver armour breastplate as well as armoured gauntlets and greaves. Silver plate armour was woven into the fabric of her deep blue dress that flared out at the hips. What stood out most about the armour was that it had several deep blue runes etched into the breastplate.

But the most amazing thing about her was not her beauty, nor her armour or sword, it was the power of her very presence, her bearing. There was only one word to describe her, regal. This young woman bore the mantle of nobility like a second skin. Despite being shorter than Shirou she had the presence of someone used to giving orders and being obeyed.

"In accordance with your summons I have come forth," she said calmly," I ask of you, are you my master?"

"Um, what?"

"You summoned me," she said, catching sight of the command seals on his hand, "and I, servant Saber, answered your call. My sword will be at your side from here on forward." As soon as she finished she stiffened and swiftly turned towards the door.

The blue hair servant was standing there looking inside the shed and grit his teeth, "I really should have killed you before you summoned your servant,"

"Wait here master," Saber said before she charged at Lancer, forcing the two of them out.

Shirou was confused even as he heard the sound of metal clashing ringing out. He didn't understand what was going on or why he was involved. What he did know was that he wasn't going to let that girl, Saber she called herself, fight that guy alone.

Outside he saw Saber and Lancer clashing, their movements were so fast that they created afterimages. He could barely see them as they blurred and the ground shook, with Lancer striking as fast as lighting and Saber blocking each thrust with tremendous skill. The most interesting thing was that Saber didn't appear to have a weapon but her stance was that of someone wielding a sword. Each swing of her unseen blade easily matched Lancer's, even when he attacked at an impossible angle she would block and counter.

Soon enough though Lancer was forced to leap back as each of Saber's swings came dangerously close to causing serious damage. He blocked a sideways slash with the shaft of his spear but the force behind it caused him to step back, righting his footing he swung his lance wide, using his momentum to push back Saber causing her feet to slide against the ground.

The two warriors of times long gone stared each other down, ready to strike again.

"What the hell is it with this day?" Lancer growled quietly to himself, "first is that red guy who wasn't a Saber but used swords, then there was that Caster who used that sword of his better than anyone I've ever faced, and now when I finally get to fight the real Saber I can't see her weapon. Stop cheating using that invisible weapon!" he shouted that last part loud enough for her to hear.

Saber responded by leaping toward Lancer and swinging her weapon with great speed forcing him to continually block each strike lest he lose his life.

Lancer grimaced with each strike he blocked, she was strong, too strong for someone with such a small body. If he didn't finish this quickly he wouldn't be able to ignore the wounds Caster gave him much longer.

"Tell me something Saber, your weapon, it's a sword right?" Lancer asked with a small grin.

Saber calmly stares at him and smirks, "maybe or maybe not, it could be anything, an axe, a mace, or even a spear. Maybe I have something completely different like a bow, but that doesn't matter, all that matters is that I will defeat you right here and now."

Lancer was silent for a moment then he started to chuckle, "you defeat me, ha, don't make me laugh!"

Saber's eyes continue to stare at him, "You talk too much Lancer, if you truly are the servant of the spear then let your lance do the talking."

Lancer started to grin like a madman, "Fine then! If you want my lance, you can have IT!"

The tip of the spear began glow crimson red, incredible power and bloodlust oozing off the sharp tip. Saber tensed, feeling the killing intent emanating from the weapon and readying herself to defend against the attack.

"Goodbye, Saber! It's been fun!" Lancer said, a bloodthirsty grin plastered on his face.

"GÁE!"

"That's enough you two,"


	4. Chapter 4

"That's enough you two," said a voice from above them, startling them enough to stop Lancer's attack.

Both Saber and Lancer looked up then leapt back when a figure landed in front of them. Eragon landed within sight of the two servants, surveying the damage their little fight had caused. It was nothing too major, just some broken glass and damaged ground.

"Who are you?" Saber was even more on her guard now that there were two servants in front of her.

"I am the Caster of this war my dear and I will beat you." Eragon was confident he would stand a chance against her, he was skilled enough to be a Saber after all, but as he didn't know just how skilled she was with a blade he would be cautious. Over confidence was what led Galbatorix to underestimate him and perish as a result, he wouldn't make the same mistake as the mad king.

Eragon looked between the two who had stopped their brief battle, taking note of the tenseness in the air. He stood not far from them, his presence causing the tension to go up another few notches for two different reasons.

Saber was tense because here was another servant whose capabilities she didn't know. Knowing he was a Caster gave her some breathing room as she had little to fear from that class but you never knew what kind of surprises a spell caster might have up their sleeve. Assuming Caster would need to charge up his attacks if they were to have any effect on her, she instead focused most of her attention on the Lancer. He was able to match her in strength and he was at least as fast as her, even though he was injured, so she considered him a greater threat presently because of that.

Lancer on the other hand knew what Eragon was capable of so he was more on his guard about him than Saber. She would merely use her sword and skill to take him down while Eragon would use his sword, skill and magic in a deadly combination. From his brief but intense fight against Saber he could tell that he was her equal in strength and speed, but from experience he knew this Caster outclassed both him and Saber in those areas and had more than enough skill to take both of them out if he got serious. The short while ago when he had seen Caster serious resulted in him being beaten, battered and disarmed, twice no less, and if Caster hadn't wanted to keep the fight going he would have died. Comparing his fights between these two he firmly put Caster in the greater threat column, and made a note to never insult his sword again, the beating wasn't worth it.

Saber however didn't have the experience he did.

"I'll give you one piece of advice Caster, run now or die," she warned, eyes not moving from either servant, "You do know that magic will do practically nothing to me." No Caster could hope to win against her with her high magic resistances, but then again Eragon was not an ordinary magic user.

"Oh that's right, you do have that ridiculous level of magic resistance don't you. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to beat you with my sword instead of using magic." His blue blade appeared in his hand causing Lancer to tense even more.

"How can you be a Caster without magic?" she called out, Invisible Air ready to release in a burst at a moment's notice. A sword wielding Caster was not something she was expecting.

She eyed his sword and could tell it was a hand and a half sword with a curved cross guard with a slightly longer hilt than usual that could be comfortably griped with both hands. From the design it looked like it could be wield with a shield as well, a sword made for fighting on the battlefield and in narrow spaces, a sword for all occasions as it were.

The grip was made from black hardwood and there was a large blue sapphire in the pommel held in place by four ribs, which looked like claws, made from the same blue metal as the blade as was the guard. The blade itself was a lighter shade of blue, and her trained eyes picked up the flame like pattern which marked the transition between the soft spine of the blade and its hard edges. The blade was thin near the end, she assumed, in order to pierce through the armour used during Eragon's time.

A black glyph was engraved on both sides of the blade, she didn't know its meaning but assumed it was the name of the sword. The glyph meant 'fire' in the Ancient Language or Brisingr as it was called, the name of the sword Eragon carried into battle for centuries and never failed him but brought him victory.

"How can you be a Saber without a sword?!" he called back, brandishing his blue blade, "I'm more of a Saber than you."

"I do wield a sword, you imbecile!" she shot back in anger, "you just can't see it because..." she stopped, she almost revealed what kept her sword hidden.

Eragon chuckled, "I almost had you there. Just a little more, and I would have had the name of your noble phantasm, or at least one of its abilities."

' _So he's not just a run of the mill warrior,_ 'thought Saber, narrowing her eyes. ' _He has a brain and he uses it_.'

"You annoying servant!" she hissed.

"Alright fine, be that way," Eragon levelled his sword at her, "I'll introduce you to my sword in a way that will leave an impression. I'm sure a maiden like you will enjoy it. It's long, sharp and hard, and once I insert this into you, you'll be screaming for hours!"

Shirou went beat red at that and Lancer's eyes widened before he was on the floor laughing his ass off. He was clutching his stomach and laughing hysterically, he was laughing so hard it seemed like he had forgotten how to breathe and was in great deal of pain.

"Hahahaha! I knew there was a reason I liked you, hahaha. This is a memory for the ages, I will never forget what you just said!"

Saber on the other hand was shaking and turned red with fury.

"I'm going to kill you!" her hiss turned into a flat out shriek at the blatant innuendo. "You want to see my sword, you'll see it soon when I cut your head off!"

Eragon smiled and turned to Lancer, "Lancer, you left before we could finish our fight and I would normally be a tad upset about that, but right now I want to see how I fare against Saber so I suggest you leave. If you don't I will give you more injuries that you have already and this time I won't spare you."

The lance wielder picked himself up of the ground, still chuckling, "well since you made this night so entertaining I will honour your request, but next time we meet I will beat you."

Eragon laughed, "how about the next time we meet we see who can drink the most. I should warn you that I've managed to survive a week long battle while constantly drinking enough booze to get an entire army drunk, and I didn't spill a drop. I can out drink you without even trying."

It was Lancer's turn to laugh, "now that I'd like to see. Bring all the booze you want, I'll out drink you no problem. Oh and Saber, whatever you do, do not insult his sword because that really hurts."

He then turned his back on them and jumped over the wall and away from the house then vanished without a trace.

Once he was gone Eragon stared straight into the eyes of Saber, "Now then Saber, shall we dance."

Saber's reply was a downward strike with her sword that would have cleaved him in two if he hadn't moved fast enough. She attacked again hoping to get past his guard and end him quickly, but it didn't happen as he parried her strike at the last second. Then he twisted his body and manoeuvred her sword away from him, leaving a gap in her defences that he used to deliver a strike to her armour, carving a deep gash into it. Undeterred she spun around to bring her blade down to take his head off but he back flipped out of the way to avoid the blow. Saber growled as she closed the distance between them and swung her invisible sword at the irritating man, who calmly parrying her strike away from him with skill that showed extensive swordsmanship expertise.

Then Eragon did something that surprised her. He switched the sword to his left hand and deflected her next strike which momentarily made her falter allowing him to throw a right cross that hit her in the jaw causing her to stumble. He flipped his sword around and slammed the hilt into her gut knocking the wind out of her, this left her open to a follow up strike. He managed to get a shallow cut all on her arm that was nothing more than a hindrance and it would heal quickly, he doubted it would be there in a few minutes.

He used Saber's injury to put some distance between them and activated his mystic eyes. His eyes became blue slits and his vision blurred before coming back into focus, but not the same as before. The world took on a blue hue and he could see thing that he couldn't normally. He could see the ley lines in the earth, the air currents in the environment and even the body heat of Saber and her master. Something else that was revealed to him was Saber's sword, or at least the glowing outline of it. His eyes negated most of the powerful wind magic that rendered the sword invisible, letting him see its shape and size so now he knew what he was up against.

Concentrating he 'tuned out' all the other things he saw and focused only on the sword. To his eyes the sword glowed revealing its design. The sword had the same basic shape as a broad sword and if it wasn't concealed by the wind it would have shone with a golden sheen. It was also intricately inscribed with runes on the blade making it seem even more beautiful, but Eragon knew not to judge a swords worth by its look. After all he considered his sword to be a work of art but that didn't mean it wasn't useful in battle, he had slain almost half a million enemies with Brisingr and he wouldn't change a thing about it.

Saber was also making use of the distance between them to catch her breath and heal her injuries. She wondered exactly who this Caster was, to be able to wield a sword with such deftness. From the strength of his blows she could tell he was at least her equal in strength and his speed exceeded her own, attributes a Caster should not have. And he fought with the raw martial skill that could only be brought about through constant training that allowed him to contend with her on an equal plane. This servant was a mystery.

From the look in his eyes it was clear that her opponent fought with experience that she did not possess. Saber was a knight, one that was the wielder of the greatest sword in history, and the main area of skill for a knight was swordsmanship. As the king of knights her swordsmanship skills were legendary, leagues above almost every knight of her time and even amongst servants her skill surpassed many. But she did not dedicate her life to the sword. As king she had spent her life learning swordsmanship, riding, jousting, how to rule, command of a military and many other skills necessary to protect her kingdom.

Yet her swordsmanship was barely keeping up with a man who had spent literally centuries of his life wielding his sword.

Eragon never bothered himself with everything a king needed to know, he simply didn't care, but he did spend his time mastering the areas that were essential to him and had at least basic proficiency in the other skills. In terms of raw power there were few who could match his magic, areas of magic he found interesting were mastered to a level where almost none had more knowledge than he, and his skills in swordsmanship were leagues ahead of almost everyone he ever encountered. As he wasn't burdened with leadership for long he spent little time learning what he called useless drabble such as politics or economics and instead mastered what he thought was required to end the mad king, though he could lead and command an army quite easily if he had to.

Because of all this she was outclassed. She, a Saber, was outclassed in a swordfight by Caster of all people. He handled his sword with the skill born of countless battles, more than she had ever participated in that's for sure. In short he had more experience in combat than her, and it was showing.

It was rare that Saber ever met someone who could challenge her, the number of people she could consider a match for her were few and far between. Some of her opponents, from life and in the previous war, could match her in strength, even overpower her in physical might if push came to shove. The only ones who could challenge her in sheer skill were just as rare but she had enough power to offset their skills and defeat them.

So it was a big surprise to find that this servant was able to meet her, blow for blow, strike for strike, with rare skill that exceeded even her own. Her arms were beginning to feel bruised and sore from defending against the blade the Caster wielded with skill that left her breath taken. It was only because of her experience and sheer determination that she was able to meet the man in battle.

Her eyes narrowed when he smirked, only to widen when he disappeared in a flash of blue light. Her guard was instantly up as she rapidly looked around for her foe. She didn't know if he had teleported away, or was simply invisible waiting to strike at her when her guard was down. Unfortunately for Caster if he was invisible Saber had experience in dealing with unseen enemies and knew what to look for to locate them, however if he was capable of teleportation then she was at a disadvantage since the only person she ever saw do that was Merlin. His method of teleportation wasn't as flashy as the method this Caster employed, his was more subtle, but if that blue flash preceded his return then at least she'd have a warning of his position however slight.

A flash of blue registered in her peripheral vision and her instincts screamed at her, without hesitation she immediately threw herself into a roll as the sharp edge of her enemy's blue blade passed through where her shoulder blades just were. She kept rolling to bring herself back to her feet, eyes focused back on her foe as she brought her sword back up. She didn't panic, doing so would not help the situation, but that blow would have ended her life. She was slightly unnerved that she could have been bested not even an hour after her summoning.

Ducking under a strike aimed at her throat, Saber caught Eragon's wrist with her armoured hand and threw him away from her. That didn't do much as he was back on her in moments, his sword nearly impaling her on the return trip. He charged against her but she dodged and attempted to kick him in his back to send him to ground, but he spun around quicker than she could react and struck her in the gut.

' _This Caster is not going to be easy to beat_ ,' Saber thought as she sidestepped another blow. ' _Aside from his swordsmanship he's fast, agile, flexible and stronger than me. He's twisting away from my blows with ease and blocking most with little effort. At least he hasn't used much magic_.'

She'd just jinxed herself because immediately after that thought a whip of blue fire emerged from Eragon's hand and wrapped itself around Saber's petite form, easily lifting her into the air then throwing her a couple of feet away. She grunted in pain as she was slam to the ground. She didn't even have a chance to get up before the whip, still wrapped around her, once again hurled her into the air effortlessly. Saber braced herself as she crash into the ground with a loud thud.

"Okay, that hurt," she grumbled as she got to her feet.

"This is a fight sweetheart," Eragon said making her glower at him for the sweetheart comment, "if you want to feel pleasure instead of pain we can always adjourn to the bedroom."

Saber roared in fury and charged at him faster than she had this entire battle, but suddenly his whip came alive and moved like a snake, trying to wrap itself around her again. She pulled back and swiped at it, cutting through the flaming whip as it moved to beheaded her. She was surprised that the whip could be cut considering it was literally made out of fire and that surprise cost her as her enemy's blade grazed her shoulder.

She easily blocked another attack from the incoming sword but then his arm came up and backhanded her across the face. She was now treading into pissed off female territory, no male wished to be on the receiving end of such ire.

She struck her fist at his face to distract him and then slashed on his legs. He moved back to avoid serious damage but still ended up with a thin cut on his leg. When she came at him again he deflected her blow and shouldered her away from him giving him time to heal the damage to his leg, then he locked their bladed together when he attempted to strike her arm.

With their blades locked, and neither of them gaining ground, Saber took a step back and managed to land a punch to his shoulder which threw him of balance enough for her to fake a strike so she could put some distance between them. She jumped back a few feet when he moved out of the way of her fake strike.

"You are a worthy opponent," she called to him, "but I will not let you win."

"You're rather good to," Eragon grinned, "This has been a good fight but let's turn up the heat."

He took a deep breath, taking in a large amount of air, and breathing out heavily as if he was sighing, blew a quick burst of blue flames from his mouth. The flames consumed Saber, bathing the area where she was standing in fire the colour of sapphire. The flames died down quickly to reveal Saber standing in the same spot, her arms covering her face with steam rolling of her, sweating and breathing heavily, however her armour was mildly singed and her hair was a mess.

Eragon whistled, "Wow, I knew you were hot but I didn't think you were smoking."

Saber roared and Eragon had to move to defend himself as he was getting hammered from strong sword strikes, some of them even created shallow cuts on his arms. Saber was using prana burst as she went on the offensive, her strikes were now much stronger and Eragon had to use his full strength to be able to deal with her enhanced strikes. Doing this would drain her mana reserves and because her master wasn't supplying her with prana there was no way to replenish herself, essentially she was shortening her time in this world. She just couldn't stand this infuriating man and was willing to risk fading away as long as she took Caster with her.

He hissed when he felt his cheek sliced open and blood trickled down his face, if he had a bit of space he would have healed it but right now he was trying not to get sliced and diced. Locking blades with Saber he drove his knee into her and shoved her back, he used that brief window to heal the damage to his face before flying at her. Their blades once more clashed in a deadly dance when eventually Saber got in a lucky shot that ripped open Eragon's side and he felt blood pouring down from the open wound. It was more than a scratch but not enough to cause lethal damage, nevertheless he healed it before bringing his sword up clashing with Saber's invisible blade once more.

He manage to twist his body and manoeuvre her sword away from him, making an opening in her defences that he used to deliver another strike to her armour, leaving another deep gash in it. She came back at him with a strike aiming to sever his arm from his body which he dodged and then tried to take out her legs. They continued blocking and evading each other's attacks, neither giving ground.

"Is that all you got Saber?" he said as he batted away another one of her strikes, "Maybe you would be better at winning a battle in the bedroom than against my sword."

Saber didn't seem to appreciate his impudent comment, evident by her murderous glare. If looks could kill, he would have been dead a hundred times over. "Your cheek will not spare you from my sword! For that I am going to carve into your body an experience you'll never forget!"

Eragon blinked then grinned, "that actually sounds rather sexy. Do you want to be on top or do you prefer to be dominated."

Taking delight in the completely outraged expression his opponent gave, he dodged another one of her strikes while trying to put some distance between them. He was good with a sword, very good even, but against a pissed of woman even he would be carful, even if it was amusing to see her like this.

He parried her next blow and jabbed her with the hilt of his sword with enough force to send her to the ground. She immediately rolled into an offensive stance but before she could do anything he jumped onto the roof and raised his hand at her.

"Adurna!"

A massive jet of water flew from his palm at Saber, the force of the spell slammed her into the wall with enough force to kill a human. Standing up she was soaked head to toe in ice cold water, she looked like a drowned cat.

Eragon took the time to laugh at the sight, "Sorry for getting you wet down there!"

"YOU ARE DEAD!" screamed a very pissed off Saber.

She got even more enraged when Eragon didn't even try to fight back, he just kept dodging her blows while throwing obvious innuendo at her. She was really starting to get angry, possibly enough to unleash the full power of her sword just to shut him up. She swung her blade wildly at her target who continued to evade her strikes with ease.

"STAY STILL AND DIE!" shrieked Saber in anger.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," called back Eragon clearly enjoying himself, "Who would get you wet if I died?"

"JUST STAY STILL AND DIE YOU DESPICABLE, ANNOYING, CASTER!" Saber shrieked in rage and indignation.

"As my old teacher once said 'He who stands like a pillar dies in battle, he who bends like a reed is triumphant'. I have to say that was a great piece of advice as you haven't taken me out yet." He had to duck quickly as her blade went for his head.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" roared Saber, swinging her invisible blade at Eragon who showed his flexibility when he bent backwards, letting the blade skim over him.

"Ole!" yelled out Eragon, "By the way... that means you missed."

Eragon's mocking tone made Saber grit her teeth in rage. Again and again she tried to hit him but he would either block or dodge, she was getting pushed over the edge by him. This servant was making her madder than she had ever been in all her existence, even when she was alive she did not feel this level of anger towards anyone, not even to her enemies when her beloved country was torn apart by war. At this moment she wanted nothing more than to erase the very presence of this servant from the world, if he would just hold still.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" yelled Saber in almost incoherent rage as she once more tried to end the servant in front of her.

That didn't go so well as Eragon avoided the blow and kicked her on the stomach sending her back.

"Well," said Eragon, standing in a relaxed pose, "this has been fun. But I think I can come up with something even more amusing that this fight. Let there be a wonderful sight before me."

He fired a bolt of blue light at Saber which seemed to do nothing.

The silence was palpable.

"… I am not impressed."

"Wait for it," Eragon drawled.

Then the beautiful sound of fabric being torn could be heard as Saber's battle dress was shredded to pieces, the shreds of clothes flying through the air. There was a moment of shocked silent as the two males stared at the naked women before them. Eragon savoured the beautiful sight.

"KYAAA!" Saber screamed trying to cover herself as she promptly went beet red.

Both Eragon and Shirou took in her naked body with interest. Her muscular yet feminine stomach and arms showed her strength, and her baseball sized breasts looked like they needed a good squeeze. Shirou was slack jawed while Eragon had to wipe drool from his mouth. When she turned to around he studied her naked backside with interest. Her muscle toned back kept its feminine appeal and her waist curved inwards slightly. Her legs were slightly muscular but very attractive and they went up to a luscious ass so round and firm, man it was sexy.

Eragon smirked as he dashed towards her and slapped her ass earning a cry from her. He enjoyed the look on her face from that slap, she was cute when she was angry.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" screamed Saber, her body red as she tried to cover herself with her hands while Shirou and Eragon were leering at her nude form.

Eragon took her question as a challenge and leapt onto the roof of the house.

"I am the master of disaster, the lord of the unpredictable. I am the he who brought an empire to its knees, he who defeated a mad king who thought himself a god, he who has now laid bare all of you Saber." Eragon continued his little speech as Saber blushed furiously trying to cover her naked body. "I am he who slew the darkness that was Durza, he who bedded princesses Arya of the elven nation and Nasuada of the Varden, he who slew his own brother in single combat. I spent centuries mastering the way of the sword, gaining the power of the ancient magic, and I have stood alone against an army of a hundred thousand and claimed victory. I am the great, the mighty, the uncontrollable, the utterly invincible, the one and only Eragon shade slayer."

He pointed his sword skyward, striking a pose as he finished his speech.

"You must truly be arrogant to reveal you identity in such a manner," Saber remarked, clearly unimpressed by his impromptu speech. Knowing he slept with two princesses was not something she wanted to hear, but the fact that won against an army of a hundred thousand and toppled an empire caused her to characterise him as a serious threat, even if his tactics were incredible annoying and caused her no end of embarrassment.

"I survived for many centuries so I can afford to be a little arrogant, and you're revealing far more than I am my dear Saber," he replied causing Saber's blush to deepen further, if that was possible, "how about I take a closer look."

He suddenly reached out with an arm, grabbed a handful of air, and pulled back violently. The unexpected spell caused Saber to emit a girlish yelp of shock as she was yanked through the air to Eragon. The shriek stopped when her neck was firmly in the grasp of Eragon's outstretched hand.

He'd summoned Saber to him and twisted her so her back was touching his chest, then shamelessly groped her breasts "Don't worry, I like itty bitty titty committee members too,"

Saber, paralysed and with a full body blush, started stammering in shock and began stuttering before she squeaked out an involuntary "Eeep!" when he pinched her nipple. A quick spell and the small patch of blond hair above her womanhood was shaped into a sword with the blade pointing towards her core, further embarrassing and enraging the knight. She struggled to get out of his grasp but his wandering hands were causing her body to lose its strength.

"Well this has been fun Saber, and I really enjoyed the view," he whispered into her ear causing Saber to blush even more, "but our time together ends here for now. Maybe your master will take care of your womanly needs, he couldn't keep his eyes off you so I think all you'd have to do is ask."

Without warning he threw her at Shirou who just stood there as her naked form crashed into him resulting in them ending up in a tangle of limbs. Shirou's eyes were closed when he fell but he could feel a warm sensation on his lips, one that felt pleasant. Opening his eyes he saw Saber's face and noticed that their lips are touching. Shirou's face immediately lit up like a furnace and Saber also gained a more intense blush as well. When he tried to move his hand he felt something soft, squeezing it makes Saber go even more red as his hand is directly on her chest. Realising he is groping her breast he too goes red and apologises.

"Uh, I'm sorry Saber," he says from his position under her, trying to keep his eyes on her face.

On top of him Saber thinks about the feel of his lips on hers and her face flushes even more, "Do not worry about it master, this was not your fault."

The two stay in their position on the ground, both breathing heavily, seemingly uncaring that one of them is naked. The simply stare at each other both with a full body blush and total obliviousness to the world. Everything is silent until a certain someone opened his mouth causing them to jump in surprise, they were so focused on each other that they completely forgot about the enemy servant.

"You know if you two are going to do the horizontal tango then I would suggest you do it somewhere a bit more private, unless you're into people watching in which case carry on," Eragon comments causing them to stutter and take on a deeper blush. "Honestly I would love to see you make her scream my good man but I have to be going, just let me know how good she is will you."

He leapt over the wall laughing hysterically and then, like Lancer before him, disappeared from sight.

The two stared in the direction Eragon went for a moment before their position came back to them. Shirou jumped to his feet and apologised continuously before he remembered that Saber was naked and on the ground.

"Let's get you some clothes," a red faced Shirou said as he helped Saber up.

"There is no need master," she was also still blushing, "I can simply materialise my armour."

As a servant she could summon the clothes she was wearing when she first appeared, specifically her battle dress. With a thought her armour reappeared on her form covering her nudity.

"See master, there was no need to worry."

"Shirou,"

"What?"

"My name is Shirou, call me Shirou instead of master,"

Saber contemplates his words, "are you sure you want me to use your name?"

"Yes," he said forcefully.

She then smiles, "very well then ma… Shirou, I will call you by your name. I like the sound of it anyway."

"Thank you Saber, I…" he suddenly clutched his chest in pain.

He felt a warm hand touch his face, he opened his eyes and saw the worried face of Saber.

"Are you alright, Shirou?" She asked, concern evident in her voice.

"I'm alright, I think the injury Lancer gave me just acted up,"

"He wounded you?" She asked with worry.

"Don't worry about it Saber, its fine," she didn't look even the slightest bit convinced.

"If its fine, then you will have no issue letting me look at it will you Shirou,"

"Why, I just said it was fine," he said stubbornly.

She grit her teeth in annoyance, "then let me see it, Shirou,"

"No Saber, I said I'm fine,"

"Tch, you stubborn man," using her superior strength and speed she literally ripped his shirt off him and examined his chest, a slight blush on her face. Her eyes widened at the scar over his heart, if the spear had hit him there he should have died.

She soon felt herself quickly being pushed away.

"What the hell Saber, you can't go around ripping peoples clothes like that,"

She only looked away and huffed in response, "If you would have let me look the first time I asked I wouldn't have had to use such drastic measures. As a servant I have to take care of my master's health, you were being as stubborn as a mule not letting me check you."

Saber pauses and her stance becomes rigid, she felt the presence of another servant within the proximity of the residence. "Shirou another servant is approaching possibly with their master. Stay here while I take care of them."

She run off in a burst of speed towards the entrance so fast he could barely follow.

Shirou knew what Saber meant by take care of them, she means that she's going to kill them, whoever they may be. It was not something he could abide by, he never wanted to kill anyone. He would not allow Saber to kill someone.

He ran after her and got to the entrance just in time to see Saber wound a man clad in red, the same one from earlier, and then he disappeared. When the man in red vanished she turned to the other intruder, a female, who fell on her backside in fear after her spells failed completely against his servant.

"Don't do it!" he screamed just as Saber was about to swing down on the enemy magus, making her hesitate.

"Why are you stopping me, Shirou?" Saber asked in confusion, though with no intention of stopping at all. "We have to kill her here and now."

"Don't Saber, please don't kill,"

"Shirou, she is an enemy master, a participant in this war, like you."

"It doesn't matter, that's not a valid reason to kill her. You beat her so she's not a threat to you or me now."

"She is not beaten Shirou," Saber was starting to wonder if her master truly didn't know the situation he was in, "she still has her command seals so she is still a threat and her servant is not dead only injured. If we don't end her now she will try to kill you later and that is something I will not allow."

He scowled at her, "You can't just kill someone like that, it's wrong. I'm not going to simply stand by and let you kill…" then he recognized the figure on the ground, "what a minute, Tohsaka, is that you?"

"Well Emiya," the now identified Rin Tohsaka said as she picked herself up and patted the dusts of her skirt, "it appears you've summoned your own servant for this war and Saber too from the look of her." She was annoyed that this guy, someone she didn't even know was a magus, summoned Saber.

"You two know each other?" Saber asked, her gaze locked on Shirou who begins to shift uncomfortably.

He gulped, "um, not exactly know per say, she's the school idol. Tohsaka, you're a magus?"

"And apparently so are you," she added bitterly. "I am the second owner of this city therefore I have to know about every magus in it. Why did you never tell me you were a magus?"

She took a step forward and instantly felt Saber's invisible blade at her throat.

She stiffened and paled but still managed to address Shirou, "aren't you going to invite me into your home Shirou? That's usually what a guy does after saving a girl,"

"Uh, ok," Shirou led Rin inside with Saber watching her like a hawk.

* * *

Adurna - water


	5. Chapter 5

"Shirou, she does not seem to have any ill intentions against you," Saber whispers as she walked beside him, "it would be best if you listen to what she has to say, anything you learn will help you win the war." He nods in response.

"Well I guess the first thing I should ask is why aren't you wearing a shirt Shirou?" Rin posed the question as they entered the house, "did it get ruined in the fight with Lancer?"

"No, Saber ripped it off me," his answer surprised Rin.

Facing Saber, "Did you have an itch that needed scratching? Are you going to show him what you look like under that armour Saber?" she asked, "it's only fair after all."

"I've already seen what she looks like naked…" he suddenly stopped and turned very red as the vivid memory came rushing back, Saber was blushing just as much.

"I didn't think you were that type of person Emiya," she teased, "did you want to have your way with poor Saber as soon as you summoned her."

"Hold on it wasn't like that," he stammered as they sat at the table.

"Indeed," Saber spoke, still blushing, "I was merely checking him when he said an injury inflicted by Lancer pained him."

"Was it after that he saw you without your clothes?"

"No," Saber's years as king allowed her to keep most of the embarrassment she was feeling from showing on her face, though she was still bright red, "my clothes were destroyed in my fight against Caster shortly before you arrived."

"Wait, Caster?"

"Yes,"

"Did this Caster have brown hair, pointed ears, pale skin, leather armour, a blue sword and did he flirt with a cocky attitude?" Rin wanted to be sure they were talking about the same guy she met earlier.

"Yes that's him," Saber was gritting her teeth at the thought of that annoying man. "I take it you've met him as well."

"Yes," she too found him somewhat annoying, "me and Archer were fighting Lancer when he showed up. He used a spell that seriously injured Archer and knocked him out, Lancer jumped away from the blast but he was still burned. After that he went to face Caster and from the sounds I heard there was not a lot of magic used in that fight."

"So that's why Lancer was sporting injuries," Saber interrupted, "continue."

"Anyway," Rin picked up where she left off, though irritated about being interrupted, "it was only a few minutes after that when Lancer fell from the roof and Caster jumped down after him. When Lancer attacked again Caster disarmed him with his sword and then punched him in the face. When Lancer tried to get his weapon back Caster backhanded him, sending him to the ground again and then he kicked Lancer in his… you know." She indicated to where the blow landed, making Shirou wince and cross his legs.

"I'm really glad he wasn't after me," said Shirou, "I don't want to lose those anytime soon."

"Rin, if Caster had Lancer at his mercy why did he show up here?" Saber may not trust her but any information she had about this strange Caster would be valuable.

The black haired magus pinched the bridge of her nose, "he gave Lancer's weapon back to him so he could continue the fight which he said he found fun, he had the chance to finish Lancer but didn't take it. Anyway, after that Shirou showed up causing Lancer to chase after him and after Caster told me to save the boy he healed Archer and left."

She still couldn't understand why Caster hadn't taken out Lancer and Archer when he had the chance.

"Can you tell me anything about him that could prove helpful in defeating him, or finding out his identity?"

"Caster is an unusually skilled and excellent swordsman, far better than even me," Saber begrudgingly admitted, "he said he had centuries of wielding his sword, destroyed an empire and defeated an army of a hundred thousand singlehandedly." She then told Rin what Caster had said after he rendered her naked, leaving what he did to her out.

"He really told you about him sleeping with two princesses, well at least we know he likes to brag,"

"Yes," said Saber, "it was not something I wanted to know."

"Agreed," Rin replied, "but we might be able to use the information he revealed to find out his identity. His name is not familiar, and I can't think of any hero who overturned an empire or defeated such a large army alone off the top of my head, but knowing the names of those princesses he mentioned may give us a lead, him defeating a mad king and something or someone called Durza is also useful information. Killing his brother should also provide insight into his true identity since I doubt there are many heroes who've done that. Anything else you can think of that will help narrow it down?"

"Yes, he could apparently teleport in a flash of blue light," answered Saber.

"That is troubling,"

"Why?" asked Shirou, still not understanding the situation.

Rin went into a lecture pose, which consisted of having one finger up in the air and the other hand resting on that arm's elbow, as she explained, "Spatial Transportation is a rare skill that is almost impossible for even the most powerful modern magi to perform, it allows someone to traverse great distances in an instant. For Caster to have this skill means that he is either powerful or skilled enough to perform it, or he is from a time when magic like that was much more common, no matter which he is dangerous. Against Saber he can move out of range rendering her sword ineffective and against Archer he could just move out of the way when he notices an arrow heading towards him, both make it very difficult to strike him down. Taking into account all this information we know about him and we can conclude that he will be a difficult opponent to not only face but also to predict."

"Agreed," Saber commented, "while what little magic he did use against me wasn't very effective, it was annoying and did hurt more than it normally should have, although I do not believe he was fighting me seriously. I get the feeling that if he really wanted to, and stopped holding back, he could have killed me tonight when we fought regardless of my magic resistance."

"Now that is troubling," said Rin, "we have a Caster class servant who could have eliminated both Lancer and Archer earlier if he chose and by your own admission Saber, he could have also killed you. Caster is supposed to be one of the weaker classes but we have one that could have killed three servants in one night if he wanted, we should be thankful that he finds fighting servants fun or else half the servants in this war would be eliminated by now."

It truly was unsettling to know that Caster of all people, the second weakest servant after Assassin, was currently the major threat in this war, they were normally easy to defeat and usually taken out by the Saber of the war. If you knew the name of a servant you could generally figure out what they would do and how they would fight which would give you an advantage. With the Caster class the magic they used would reveal a clue to their identity, if you knew their name then you would know what magic they could use and plan accordingly, but that wasn't the case with this Caster. He was more like a combination of Saber and Caster apparently with enough skill in both classes to be a major threat no matter what.

"Anyway," Rin asked, changing the topic, "you want some explanations about the Holy Grail War Shirou, correct?"

"Yes," he answered, "it would help me understand this situation,"

"Well how about I fix this place up first, then I'll explain,"

She walked over to the broken window, cut her fingertip and with a drop of blood the glass reforms as if it never broke in the first place. She fixed the damaged sections of the hallway and kitchen too, it looked like it did before he was attacked.

"There we are, all fixed, though you probably could have done that yourself," she said in an afterthought.

"So that's what a proper magus can do, that was quite amazing Tohsaka," Shirou said with admiration, "it would have taken me hours to fix all of that."

She turned to him, her expression one of disbelief, "What? You mean you couldn't have done that."

"No, I can't do anything like that," he rubs the back of his head sheepishly.

"What!" she shrieks causing Shirou to wince at her tone, "how could you not know how to do that, it's one of the simplest thing they teach you."

He rubbed the back of his head again, "I'm not really that good of a magus, the only things I know how to do are reinforcement, structural analysis and tracing."

"I've never heard of tracing," Rin said after a few moments of silence, "what does it do?"

"I use it to create things,"

Rin frowned, "so it's like gradation air where you project objects out of prana,"

"Sort of,"

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "So all you know are two very basic spells and one I've never heard of, do you at least know your origin or which of the five elements you're aligned with?"

"No,"

"Do you know how to make a bounded field?"

"Nope again,"

"Can you at least make a magic circle?"

"Never tried,"

This was when Rin's right eye started twitching and she seemed to get an unsettling smile on her face. It was one that seemed to say 'I'm so amazed that someone as stupid as you got Saber that it's only this smile which is keeping me beating you within an inch of your life'.

Then that smile turned into a glare and she had to stop herself from screaming, "what have your teachers been telling you? What I did to fix the house was basic magecraft. Reinforcement and structural analysis are also basic and practically useless for a mage."

She quickly went into a rant about him being a third rate magus the got lucky.

"I only had my dad and he didn't really teach me much," he said making her pause in her rant.

"I can't believe a third rate magus like you managed to summon Saber," her eyes narrowed, "do you know how quickly I'd win this war with her as my servant,"

"But I am not your servant, I am Shirou's," Saber said, "and I have sworn my sword to him alone."

"Fine, I'm sure you'll last long with him as your master" Rin scoffed, "now about the war…"

She was cut off when Saber's stomach growled loudly.

"How about I make us something to eat first," Shirou said, "seeing as at least one of us is hungry, I'm kind of hungry myself now that I think about it."

"Shirou as a servant I do not require sustenance, I will be fine without food," her stomach growled again cutting her off.

"Saber, with that beast growling we're not going to get anywhere so you are going to eat dinner," he said

"Shirou, I am a servant before I am a person, I do not need…"

"Saber," Shirou cut her off, "please, do not think of yourself that way. Do not think yourself as a servant, think of yourself as a person, one that needs to eat, okay."

"Very well Shirou," she relented.

"Good, now keep an eye on Rin while I make us something to eat,"

He went to the kitchen, leaving Saber rather flustered behind to watch Rin, who she didn't trust.

' _Why does he care so much? I am his servant, nothing more_ ,' she thought as her master worked in the kitchen.

Shirou cared about her more than a master should about their servant, she should be offended but his concern gives her a delightful feeling, she was confused. And so the currently not hostile magus and the flustered, and confused, servant sat in silence in the room, waiting for a certain red haired magus to bring them food.

About twenty minutes later a delicate smell permeated house as Shirou's cooking was almost finished. The aroma was enough to make Saber momentarily forget about Rin and the threat she posed. Soon enough Shirou came back bringing with him a few bowls of ramen, sushi and rice, along with some side dishes of some baked potatoes covered in slightly melted butter and fried vegetables. He also brought a pitcher of iced orange juice to the table.

"Since we have something important to talk about I made something quick and simple for dinner tonight," Shirou explained with a smile as he placed the dishes right in front of Rin and Saber, "I hope you like them,"

He then sat down next to Saber, noticing Rin looking at the food rather hungrily.

"Well then, itadakimasu,"

They took a bit of everything available and dug in. When Saber and Rin took their first bite their eyes widened at the delicious flavours they tasted. Saber managed to demolish her meal with inhuman speed while still maintaining impossible grace and mannerisms, once she finished her meal she plated up a second helping.

"This is quite good Shirou," Saber praised his skill while giving him a beautifully bright smile.

"Agreed,"

Rin's reaction was more neutral as she savoured the taste, but her eyes clearly showed how pleased she was with the food.

Though he could clearly see that Saber enjoyed his food Shirou didn't expect her to eat, thirds, fourths and fifths, she must really be hungry. If this was going to be a regular occurrence then he would need to increase his food supply for the next couple of days to satisfy his servant's gluttonous appetite. He didn't even know that someone could eat something so fast while at the same time looking so regal and proper. She was currently eating at an alarming pace, practically inhaling the food in her bowl. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he doubted it was possible for someone to eat as much as Saber so quickly, perhaps the fact that she's not a normal human helps.

"I don't think you've made enough food Shirou," Rin remarked, "Saber will eat all this easily."

"But there are a dozen bowls on the table," Shirou exclaimed, "She couldn't possibly eat them all,"

Said blonde slurped up the last of her ramen and sighed contently before putting her empty bowl down, maybe now they can continue their conversation.

"See,"

"Another bowl please, Shirou," Saber looked at Shirou expectedly, who sighed.

He'd made something rather simple and prepared it quickly, and Saber had eaten everything he and Rin hadn't taken, they'd only had one bowl each.

"Uh Saber, you've eaten it all, there isn't any more left," he pointed to the table beside her.

Saber gasped, there were a number of empty bowls piled up right next to her.

"Shirou, we shouldn't be running on empty stomachs when we next encounter a servant, hunger is the enemy after all," Saber had apparently completely forgotten the fact that she didn't need food to live or even to exist. But after exerting the amount of energy she had tonight even the miniscule amount of prana she got from food would be welcome, that Shirou's food was delicious was a bonus.

"How about we get back to me explaining the war to Shirou before something else comes up," Rin interrupted.

"That's probably a good idea," admitted Shirou as he finished putting the dishes in the sink.

"Alright," Rin assumed a lecture pose, "the grail war is essentially battle between seven masters and seven servants for the right to possess the Holy Grail which will grant a wish to the victorious pair. Seven magi are chosen by the grail to become masters and are given three command seals which symbolise their participation as masters and the contract with their servants. You can use these seals to give your servant three absolute commands, commands so powerful that could even break the rules of the world, such as instantaneously teleporting your servant to your side. If you use up your command seals then you will no longer be a master and your servant will no longer serve you. This could result in them turning on you but they will most likely fade unless they contract themselves to another master. Now the servants are actually legendary figures summoned from the throne of heroes, they fight to have their own wish fulfilled just their master theirs. Oh, another rule is that we're only to fight at night when we can't be seen. You understand me so far?"

"I think so," said Shirou, "so basically seven masters and servants fight to get this grail to have their wish granted and if they use up their command seals then they're out of the war."

"Basically yes," she replied, "Now in this war the servants will try to eliminate each other and as a master you now have a target on your back. I still can't believe you of all people became a master," she grumbles the last part.

"Why,"

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "understand that servants are many times stronger than humans and the easiest way to get rid of a servant is to get rid of their master, without an anchor to this world they will fade."

"Why can't the masters just cooperate with each other?"

"Shirou, servants need to be sacrificed for the grail to appear and as it's not a physical object, but rather a spiritual one, only servants can touch it."

"So no cooperation then,"

"No, now can we get back on track,"

Shirou nodded.

Rin paused and took out several sheets of paper, with crude stick figure drawings and written notes, and spread them out on the table.

"Now on to the actual servants themselves. The servants are divided into several different classes that can be summoned into this world each with their own unique skills. The normally classes for the war are Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Berserker, Caster, and Assassin, there are other classes known as extras classes but since I doubt there'll be any of them in this war I won't mention them. Now these servants all have trump cards know as noble phantasms, which are a crystallisation of their individual legends. Remember that these noble phantasms do not have to take the form of a weapon, they could be a special ability or special method of attack depending on the servant themselves."

"Ok, I'm with you so far,"

Rin pulled a collapsible pointer from somewhere, much to the surprise of Saber and Shirou.

"This is Saber," she tapped the sheet with the image of a sword wielding person with the pointer, "The Saber class specialise in close range melee attacks and are usually equipped with a sword but not always. They are also the class with the highest magic resistance making it easy for their master to provide support."

She tapped a sheet with an image of a stick figure bowman, "this is Archer. This class, as the name implies, specialise in ranged attacks and usually have high ranks in independent action. They mainly use long range attacks which are normally destructive but their weapon doesn't have to be a bow."

"This is Lancer," she tapped the sheet showing a man holding a spear, "Lancers generally use spear like weapons and are considered to be the fastest servant in the war. The one is this war seems to have a higher level of magic resistance than Archer considering how he was affected by Caster's attack at school."

"The Berserker class," she once more hit a sheet with the pointer, "they are normally strong brutes who have their strength increased by the madness enhancement and attack like wild animals. The madness enhancement increases their strength in exchange for their sanity."

"Next we have Assassin," she hit a sheet with a drawing of a man wearing a skull mask, "this class is considered the weakest of the servants since they are not usually a match for any of the other classes. They hide in the shadows to avoid a direct fight and remain undetected thanks to their presence concealment skill, their normal method of attacks if to take out the enemy masters before the other servants can stop them so beware of this servant Shirou."

"Rider is a difficult servant class to nail down," she put the pointer on the sheet with a stick drawing of a man and horse, "this is the least predictable of the classes because they are defined as a hero with some kind of mount. There's not set rules about what weapons or skills they can use so it's difficult to even get an idea of their capabilities. Also their mount is not required to be an animal, so it is possible for it to be some sort of vehicle, for example if a pirate were summoned then their mount could be the ship they used in life. The important thing to remember is that when Rider is fighting on foot they are not at their true strength."

"And last but not least we have Caster," she taped the last sheet which had an image that looked strangely like her with glowing hands, "this class is supposed to have low physical stats and high mana levels making them ill-suited for close combat. The Caster of this war however seems to be the exception," she paused when she felt a large amount of killing intent coming from Saber before continuing, "anyway, this Caster seems to not only possess powerful magic but also has enough skill with a sword to outmatch Saber, not the typical type of servant for that class."

"He was also stronger and faster than me," Saber informed her, even if it bit into her pride.

"So in addition to everything else he is also physically on par with you and I'm guessing Lancer as well, I get the feeling that he is going to be the most difficult servant of this war." Rin said as she put the sheets and pointer away. "I think that covers everything so do you have any questions Shirou?"

"Just one Tohsaka," Shirou said, "did you make these drawings yourself?"

Rin's eye started twitching as she growled out, "I'm not an artist I am a magus, so I spend more time on my craft rather than learning to draw."

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it,"

"You better not have," she all but growled, "Now we need to get you to the man that oversees this war, he should still be up right now."

"Where are we going?" he asked.

Rin grimaced and answered, "To the church."

Shirou glanced at the Saber, "If you're fine with it then let's go."

"Very well Shirou," Saber said.

Rin frowned at the servant, "Aren't you going to go into spirit form, you are rather noticeable."

Shirou blinked in confusion, "spirit form?"

The female magus sighed, "Servants can turn incorporeal to save energy and while in spirit form they cannot be easily detected by enemies as they are invisible to the naked eye. While in this form they can travel without being impeded by walls, but they cannot touch anything in that state. It's what they do when they guard their masters in public areas and it's what Saber should do right now."

Saber looked at her, "I can't,"

Rin gave another sigh, "why am I not surprised your servant is just as confusing as you,"

"Don't worry Rin," said Shirou, "I have something she can wear to blend in,"

"Alright let's just go already," she ignored Saber's glare and walked out.

00000

From a rooftop across the street Eragon watched the occupants of the Emiya household at the table undetected, although inviting an enemy master to dinner was surprising. From what he could tell from lip reading, a skill he picked up a while ago, the black haired magus was informing Saber's master about the war, apparently using pictures. Apparently her servant, the one in red he couldn't identify earlier, is Archer, but Eragon wondered why he didn't use a bow.

He lost sight of them for a moment as they walked to the front door and walked off somewhere. He actually face planted at seeing Saber wearing a bright, yellow raincoat with the hood pulled up over her armour. If that was a disguise it was a really bad one as the bright yellow was very noticeable and draws even more attention to her, stopping himself from laughing he got his mind back on track.

Feeling he had a better chance of locating more servants if he stayed close to them, two masters would make tempting targets after all, he decided to follow them. He absorbed the prana contained in one of the jewels on his belt to restore the energy he'd spent fighting with Lancer and Saber, he didn't really need it with his massive mana reserves but he thought it was better to be cautious. Keeping his distance he followed them as they went, making sure to always keep them in sight.

* * *

AN: if you're wondering what Eragon's armour looks like picture the thieves' guild armour from Skyrim without the hood or straps and that's pretty much it.


	6. Chapter 6

Shirou, Saber and Rin slowly walked to their destination with Rin glancing back at Saber.

"Um, Shirou couldn't you have at least tried to hide Saber better than this?"

Saber was walking behind them in a bright yellow raincoat.

"Well it makes her standout less than if she was seen in her shining armour," Shirou commented, "besides it's the middle of the night so not many people will see her anyway." He turned his head to look behind him, "are you sure you don't want to walk beside us Saber?"

"No Shirou," said Saber from behind him, "this position is preferable to guard your back. And Rin, would you mind telling me why we're going to the church at this time of night instead of waiting till morning."

"The quicker you two are recognised the quicker the war can officially begin,"

"You mean the war isn't official despite Saber fighting Lancer and Caster?" asked Shirou.

"The war doesn't officially begin until the last of the servants is summoned," Rin replied, "but that doesn't mean the servants already summoned can't fight each other. Anyway the church had been supervising all the Holy Grail Wars since the second one, and a master must present themselves to the overseer so that everyone is accounted for, though that rule isn't always followed by all the participants."

"Shirou, something feels very wrong about this place, I do not like this," Saber said, as they arrived at the church.

"He still needs to alert the overseer that he is joining the war now come on," Rin said as she took Shirou towards the church.

"I shall remain here to keep watch in case an enemy decides to attack us Shirou," Saber said and got a nod from her master as he and Rin entered the church.

"Kirei, where are you?" shouted the girl as she entered, "I've brought the last master to be registered."

"Truly Rin," said a deep voice that belonged to a man sitting on the seats in the front row, "I didn't know you were so eager to help enemies."

Rin crossed her arms, "can we just get on with this? This is Shirou Emiya, the last master of the war, now hurry up and register him."

The priest's eyes widened for a second when he heard the boy's name before they returned to normal.

"Hmm, I am Kirei Kotomine, the head priest of this church and the supervisor of the current Holy Grail War," said the priest as he looked at the young man, "do you understand what you have been drawn into boy."

"I do," he looked at the man's eyes and had to suppress a shiver, "this is a war between heroes of legend who fight to claim the Holy Grail and have their wish granted."

"You know that you will have to kill in this war if you wish to participate, but there is still a chance for you to back out. If you relinquish your command seals and give up being a master, I can grant you asylum in this church. It is neutral ground and no master would attack this place or both the church and the mages association will hunt them down."

"I won't quit," Shirou said stubbornly, "I'm in this war not to win, but to minimize casualties. I want to ensure no one innocent gets hurt."

"Ten years ago in the fourth Holy Grail War there was a master who sought to save the world, but he ended up causing a tragedy that killed many innocent lives," the fake priest said, "what that man did created the fire that happened ten years ago. Be careful how you proceed for you might cause something just as tragic."

"Then I will become the final master to stop another thing like that from ever happening again,"

Kirei nods his head, "very well. Then Shirou Emiya, as last of the masters, to join, I now declare the start of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Rejoice, my son, for at last your wish will be granted!" His voice booms in the church.

Shirou can't shake the feeling of unease he gets from that man as he and Rin walk out.

"I don't trust that man, something seems off about him," he said as they met up with Saber.

"I agree that he might seem a bit creepy, I don't think there's anything majorly wrong about him. Why do you think something's off about him," Rin asked.

"It just a feeling I have,"

"It would be best to shelve this topic as it is now very late," Saber stated, "I believe we should return to our homes before we are attacked,"

Suddenly, childish giggles filled the air.

"Onii-chan!"

The trio turned their head and saw a little girl with white hair and red eyes wearing a purple overcoat and boots, along with a big purple Ushanka with no flaps to cover her ears.

The little girl smiled once more, "So I final get to meet you Onii-chan?" she said rather cutely.

Saber's eyes widened slightly, ' _that appearance… could she be_?' she thought before she threw that speculations out of her mind, ' _No, she's much too young to be_ _I_ _risviel's daughter, but she looks so similar_ ,'

The girl lifted the sides of her overcoat slightly, showing the white skirt beneath it, and curtseyed as she greeted them, "Pleased to meet you all, my name is Illyasviel von Einzbern, and you're all going to die. Come Berserker."

Suddenly a gigantic, monstrous looking servant came into being, it was much bigger than everyone present. It had the shape of a man, but incredibly muscled with iron grey skinned and standing at least ten feet tall, and a pair of different coloured eyes, one blood red, the other deep gold both were glowing ominously. Its only clothing resembled some type of armoured kilt which stopped just short of its knees, leaving his extremely muscled body bare and exposed.

In his right hand, he wielded a crude and primitive axe sword weapon, that looked like it was fashioned out of a slab of rock, almost as large as the monstrous servant itself, and the ease with which he wielded it suggest that he had an ungodly amount of strength.

The titanic servant didn't speak, not a single noise did it make except for the sound its subdued breathing.

"Einzbern!" Rin exclaimed in shock, she didn't think she would face one of the founding families this soon. "What kind of monstrous servant have the Einzberns summoned? That thing is unbelievable."

"Rin do you know her?" Shirou asked.

"The Einzberns are a family of magi who have desired the Holy Grail for a very long time, they have always sent an Einzbern to participate in each Grail War."

"So she's a Master to?" he couldn't believe that a child like this could be capable of entering this war and killing. "Why do you want to kill us?" he asked, confused.

She giggled at his response, "hehe! Oh, Onii-chan, I'm going to kill those two because they are part of this war but you I'm going to kill because I want to. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," Illya said gleefully.

"You will not lay a hand on my master," Saber immediately stands in front of him and glared at the hulking monster. Her gauntleted fist was held out of the raincoat and a faint distortion in her hand was the only indication she had drawn her weapon.

"As if you could stand up to my Berserker, he is Hercules the greatest hero of Greece,"

Rin's eyes widened even more when she processed what Illya said. Hercules, and he has been summoned as Berserker.

Saber narrowed her eyes and the wind began to converge around her as the outline of her invisible sword seemed to shimmer, "I will not be beaten easily, if I fall I will take your servant with me,"

"Have no fear of that Saber," said a voice that made Saber grind her teeth, "I will defeat this monster for you."

Just like when Saber and Lancer were fighting, Eragon dropped from the sky. The servant of the sword had to use a monumental amount of restraint not to attack him right then and there for what he did to her, but she forced herself to keep her attention on the mad servant before her, seeing him as the more immediate threat.

"What are you doing here Caster?" growled Saber.

"Do I need a reason to see you? Going for a new look with that coat are you?"

"I'd prefer to never see you again in my life," she so wanted him dead right now.

"You were more tolerable with your clothes off," he commented.

That did it.

She swung her sword at him, aiming to kill, but it was not to be. Eragon side stepped her blade and swiftly kicked her feet out from under her, sending her to the floor.

"Saber, you don't have the energy to fight me, don't lie I can sense your reserves are half gone. If you fight him you will fade. So you are going to stay here and protect your master and I am going to have some fun fighting that brute over there, now stay, good dog."

To say Saber was pissed would be like saying water was wet, she wanted nothing more than to lash out at Caster and kill him, but had to agree that he had a point, no matter how much she hated it. She was weak from having used up a lot of her mana reserves fighting him earlier and without a proper connection to Shirou she couldn't replenish her mana.

"Good to know you can see reason, now stay right there honey while I deal with this for you," his cheerful tone and what he called her made her want to break his neck.

"Who are you?" asked a confused Illya.

"I am Eragon, the Caster of this war," Eragon replied, summoning his sword and walking forward, "and I am going to destroy that servant of yours, like so,"

Eragon held his sword upwards and charged it with energy causing it to glow blue. Not wasting time Eragon slashed his sword downward with a mighty swing, a crescent shaped wave of blue energy erupted from the swing and headed towards Berserker, cutting through his body like a hot knife through butter, and continuing on to the wall fifty feet behind him.

Everyone watched as Berserker's arm that held his weapon separate at the elbow and fell to the ground with a loud crash. The attack had also severed the giant's body in a diagonal path that ran from his lower left hip area to the upper right of his torso, a moment later the two parts of his body slowly separated as the upper portion fell first hitting the sidewalk with a thud and his lower torso fell upon him, hitting him in the face.

The two body parts seemed to fall in slow motion as the watchers stared in horror that a Caster class servant had so easily killed Berserker, a demigod no less.

The great Hercules was cut into two pieces, three if you count the arm.

"Now that was just way too easy, not to mention boring," he sounded disappointed, "I thought he would be tougher than that."

Everyone was looking at Eragon in shock at the ease of which he had just dispatched the Berserker Hercules, even Saber had to admit that she couldn't have won so easily. This just went to show that Rin was correct in naming Caster as the major player in this war, as well as reinforcing the fact that he could have easily wiped her out in their previous fight if he truly wanted to. The thoughts of Rin and Saber were the same, how do you beat someone strong enough to so casually kill Hercules.

Illya was shocked at her servants defeat before she composed herself and started laughing, "It seems I underestimated you Caster," she laughed even more, "that you managed to kill Berserker is impressive, but can you kill him eleven more times?"

Everyone bar Illya and Eragon froze as the aura of madness that had been present when Berserker first materialised returned.

"The power of his noble phantasm gives my Hercules twelve lives! You stand no chance of defeating him."

Berserker was regenerating before their very eyes, his lost limb regrew and he picked up the stone sword again, in moments he was fully healed, with nary a scratch on his once pitted frame.

"Oh, so this won't be boring after all," Eragon said, exited to take on a challenge such as this, "am I correct in assuming that he also gets stronger with each resurrection."

"He gains a resistance to whatever killed him before and becomes harder to kill every time he dies," Illya says, "so you see now why you have no hope of winning."

"I like a challenge,"

"Enough of this, my Berserker is the strongest servant of all, none can defeat him. Go Berserker, destroy him!"

The mad servant roared before he charged in response to the command and attacked Eragon with blinding speed. His roars shook the area, and each step sunk into the ground cracking the concrete. With an air shaking roar, he swings his weapon, causing shockwaves to explode from the air. He swung that axe sword around with easy, his arm blurring at the speed of its movements.

"He's swinging that thing around like a toy!" Rin yelled.

Berserker swung that monster of weapon right at Caster, who hadn't moved. The blow connected causing the concrete below to be crushed and the air to shudder as an explosion reverberated throughout the area.

Illya laughed as the smoke cleared and she looked upon the destruction her servant had caused, "looks like there's nothing left of Caster now."

Saber, Rin and Shirou, were stunned, Caster had been taken down by Berserker. After seeing what he could do they didn't think he could be taken out so easily as that, and they were right.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Caster's voice echoed, and made the spectators turned towards the source, the top of a lamp post nearby.

' _How did he manage to avoid that attack_?' Rin thought in awe, ' _I didn't even see him move_ ,'

"It appears your servant has me beat in strength but I outmatch him in speed," he said not taking his eyes off the mad servant below. "Let's see how he handles this,"

He pointed at berserker, " **wind** ," he said in the ancient language.

Everyone bar him and Berserker were thrown backwards and tossed on their backsides by the spell. They could all feel the temperature plummet, their breaths steaming the air as they breathed. Winds more powerful than anything that would be encountered naturally had thrown them away as they struck at the giant. The shockwave that accompanied the spell forced everyone to cover their eyes and when they could see again, they saw that Berserker's skin was marred by several dozen cuts. They weren't enough to take one of his lives as Eragon hasn't put enough power behind the spell to cause that amount of damage, he'd used just enough to cripple Berserker so he could take one of his lives easily.

Even through his madness Berserker felt the effects of being sliced by hellishly powerful winds, colder than ice itself, and feeling like he was being cut by thousands of razor sharp blades. The problem was that he couldn't move as his muscles and nerves had been severed so he could barely even stand, let alone defend himself. This wouldn't normally be a problem as he could shrug off crippling wounds such as this, but they were severed at multiple places so completely that they rendered him barely able to move. Even in his maddened state he knew he was vulnerable like this.

Ignoring the stunned looks he was getting, Eragon jumped in front of the immobilised servant and with his sword he chopped into his skull and going all the way down, splitting his iron body in half. Knowing Berserker's noble phantasm, he immediately leapt backwards and landed beside a shocked Saber.

"Bet you're wondering why I didn't do that to you?" the blonde could only nod, "it wouldn't be fun if it ended too quickly. How about the next time we meet I'll show you what I can really do and we'll see how long you last."

He said it in such a neutral tone that she didn't know if it was innuendo or not, either way she didn't know who to vote for in this fight, the brute or the most annoying man in the world.

Illya stomped her foot against the ground, "No fair! You shouldn't be able to kill Berserker twice, you must have cheated. There is no way my Hercules could possibly be beaten by you."

There was a wordless roar and Berserker was back in one piece and Illya had a smug look on her face.

"Here we go again," grinned Eragon.

He launched himself towards Berserker and cut into his sword arm, but instead of cutting it off, his blade only cut about a fifth of the way through.

"Ok, now it's a fight,"

And so the sounds of destruction became the theme of the struggle, as the sight of the impossible Caster traded blows with the mad servant. His powerful yet graceful strikes contrasted to Berserker's mad swings with that massive weapon, events the spectators dare not miss. The destruction echoed throughout the surrounding area as Caster _,_ despite the supposed impossibility of a feat, went toe to toe with this monstrous hero and was managing to stand his ground.

The clashing of the blue blade against the blade axe created ripples in the air that caused damage to the surroundings, but Eragon had dealt with worse during his life so he was able to deal with the Berserker at close range. Berserker may have been stronger but he was faster, and he made use of that superior speed to dodge the powerful attacks knowing that if the monster's attacks were to hit him, it could mean his death.

Each blow that missed created a small crater in the ground accompanied by a miniature explosion. Eragon tried to avoid any direct hits from that weapon because if he failed to block or dodge them he would be severely injured, possibly even dead.

He put a few feet of distance between him and the hulking monster and the blasted him with a dozen ice shards which pierced his skin. Unfortunately they did little more than annoy him, as he was like a storm shattering anything he touched. Even with injuries covering his entire body, blood splattered with each movement, he did not slowdown in his assault.

Berserker knew that this servant was a threat even in his maddened state. So he charged at him like a herd of stampeding elephants, moving at speeds so fast he was a blur to even Saber's eyes. The unstoppable force, the strongest hero of Greece summoned as the Berserker class roared and swung his enormous weapon downward intending to rend Caster in half.

Eragon twisted his body, easily avoiding what could have been a fatal blow. While he did have enough strength to block these blows it was better for him to use his speed to avoid them.

The monster that was Berserker changed again, seeming to became even more powerful, as he stepped towards him. Eragon answered that charge with one of his own and ran to meet him. Clash after clash rang out as their weapons collided.

Berserker evaded one of Eragon's thrust towards his chest by jumping straight up out of the way and swinging his weapon on the return trip with enough force to embed it into the pavement.

The shockwave it created however was enough to push Eragon back.

Berserker took advantage of that and smashed his sword into his gut. As the blow was from the side of his weapon it was enough to knock the wind out of him and send him to the floor. While he was down though, he threw out his hand and sent a dozen fireballs flying at Berserker. They slammed into his abdomen, with enough force to knock him on his back a few meters away, but they didn't seem to do much other than inflict some minor burns that would slow him down when he got up.

Berserker gave another roar, and his next swing almost took Eragon's arm off. If he was anyone else he probably would have been killed in moments from the sheer strength and speed of the monstrous servant's attacks. He rushed forward and met Berserker's one handed swing with his own two handed strike.

Stone sword met blue blade causing the air to ripple with the impact of two great forces slamming together. Eragon held his ground, though the ground beneath his feet buckled and shattered. He traded sword blows with the mad servant until he had an opening and slashed at Berserker's bare thigh. The blade sunk into the flesh but the giant servant showed no signs of being affected by what would be considered a crippling wound, he continued to attack moving just as fast and powerful as before. Eragon had to use his own incredible agility to dodge the blows that came his way.

If Berserker's mind had been whole, he would have been enjoying this fight against such a powerful foe. But in this state all he could do was roar in mindless rage as Eragon evaded him again.

Eragon continued to weather the storm of blows and slashed at Berserker's legs, nearly chopping off his knee. Brisingr sliced into demigod flesh with ease but despite taking multiple injuries he was no less fast or strong than before, his strength was still unmatched and his speed was still incredible. The untiring behemoth was creating shockwaves from just the force of his swings.

He deflected the stone sword and punched the servant of madness in the stomach with a lightning spell coating his fist, the sound of thunder made by the attack resounded throughout the empty area. Berserker was thrown back by the sudden attack but was not given a moment to recover. Eragon dashed towards him, faster than before, and delivered another lightning punch to the monster's ribcage, while slicing into him again.

Much to the surprise of everyone witnessing the battle, Eragon dropped his sword and he delivered a two handed blow right into Berserker's abdomen, lightning discharging from his fists and passing through Berserker's body and made the beast cough up blood. Another heavy hit caused the mighty hero to be thrown backwards, crashing into a wall, destroying it in the process.

Berserker managed to get up quickly, then roared and charged towards Eragon, once more aiming to smash him into paste. He left craters in the street every time he failed to land a hit on the servant who was even faster than him.

The fake Caster evaded his monstrous blows before he stepped forward and sliced into his stomach, yet even what should have been another fatal blow was once more ignored by the mad servant.

Despite taking numerous wounds, Berserker seemed incapable of getting weaker. Blood was spilling everywhere from his giant frame now, and yet he moved with the same speed and strength as he had at the start, unfortunately for him Eragon had a few tricks up his sleeve, tricks that could deal with even him.

Eragon grinned as the blood covered servant came near and a moment later the blood turned into needles that pierced the demigods flesh. Next he incanted some kind of spell that made chains emerged the blood that had been spread across the street and bind Berserker.

Knowing the chains wouldn't last long Eragon slashed down at the trapped servant's chest causing it to be sliced open and blood to splatter the ground. Then he cut into the flesh of Berserker's right hand, the hand still clutching the sword, until the limb was severed and threw the stone weapon a few feet away. Next he created an orb of blue fire and shaped it into a spear, then leapt high into the air and hurled it at the giant with all his strength.

Berserker roared as the spear was lodged in his shoulder. Then to the surprise of all bar Eragon, the spear exploded and in an instant the entire upper half of Berserker's body was gone, the shockwave sending chunks of meat everywhere.

The spectators to this destruction all had shocked expressions on their faces and were thoroughly baffled by what Caster had done, their thoughts were roughly along the same lines. The confidence Illya once had started to falter as she saw her beloved Hercules blown apart. Saber was shocked that Caster had killed such a beast three times and mentally labelled him as the greatest threat she'd ever encountered. Shirou didn't know what to think as he was still new to this whole war but even he could see that this was beyond what was considered normal. But the most vocal was Rin.

"That Einzbern managed to summon Hercules as a Berserker, and Caster is the one making mincemeat out of him. What the heck has happened here? I didn't see what just happened, there's no way that could have just happened, there is no way that monster should be able to be held at bay by him." Rin muttered in disbelief, so much that she began to lose her ability to speak coherently.

"Ah Rin," said Shirou, "I think he might be…"

Rin didn't let Shirou finished, "GRAAAAAH! ALRIGHT?!" she roared, "This Caster is some kind of a monster that can blow Hercules to bits. What kind of servant are you?"

"One that you don't know about that's for sure," Eragon chuckled, "if you knew who I was then you'd know that taking on a servant like this is nothing for me."

Rin screamed, sounding like she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

Whatever response she had was cut off by a roar as the destroyed body regenerated, and once more, Hercules stood tall and proud, then he moved. His hand threw out a punch so hard that the single strike from his fist was like a missile. It struck Eragon in the chest and the next thing he knew, he was sent flying into the closest wall by a punch that fractured his ribcage, and would have killed any lesser servant instantly.

"So you finally landed a hit on me," Eragon said as he coughed blood, "now things are getting interesting,"

He charged as Berserker and their weapons met, but Eragon was the one repelled and he was thrown backwards, unbalanced and vulnerable. Something Berserker took advantage of when he managed to land another hit. Considering the strength and ferocity of this particular attack, the slash of the axe sword was far more powerful than it had been before, and it caused Eragon to be thrown more than twenty feet away although he managed to right himself before he hit the ground.

Berserker's weapon smashed through road in an attempt to crush Eragon, who narrowly evaded the blow and slashed at both his arms. Then his blue blade slammed into his chest but missed the unstoppable monster's heart, which was not good for him. Eragon felt a sharp pain explode across his back and blood trickling steadily down his armour. The Greek demigod had managed to cut his back open, much like a certain shade had done when he was still young. The wound was great but Eragon had centuries of experience dealing with pain and pushed the sensation out of his mind as he focused on the fight.

A moment later Berserker swung his sword down with enough force to level a house, the weapon buried itself in the road, sending a cloud of dust and debris everywhere. Eragon was blown back by the shockwave and landed on his injured back with a grunt.

He picked himself up and grinned, despite being more injured than he had been in his fights with Saber and Lancer combine he was having a blast. For someone who enjoyed fighting as much as he did this was less a fight to the death than a thrilling competition to determine who is dominant.

His thoughts were interrupted by another violent swing. He ducked under the incoming axe sword as it cleaved past the space where his head had just been, feeling strands of his hair being ripped out by the force.

Teleporting a fair distance away from Berserker, he floated in the air then raised his hand and sent several orbs of light towards the mad servant. They did not touch Berserker, they just flew past him, but that wasn't all they did. They suddenly surrounded Berserker, knocked him back and burning his skin before, in the blink of an eye, his was frozen in place. Berserker was held in place, encased in ice and unable to escape, but it didn't last long as he started moving, breaking through his frozen prison with sheer brute strength.

Before he was fully free Eragon created five more orbs of light that circled around him as they merged into one singular orb bigger than even Berserker. As he didn't want anyone else to get caught in the blast he created a glass like barrier to shield them from spell. Before he could even combining the orbs Berserker was free so he bombarded the mad giant with several beams of light, slamming him into the ground when they hit.

With Berserker on the ground, and his mega orb finished, he blasted his opponent with the stored energy. The attack took the form of a bright blue beam that shot out of the orb and left a gaping hole in the chest of the servant of madness. Berserker let out a growl as he fell backwards, the spell taking another one of his lives as the street became silent.

Unfortunately the barrier itself shattered blowing the spectators back but they were in too much shock to do anything. Illya was showing fear as her Hercules was killed for the fourth time, something she didn't think could happen. Saber was critically eyeing every move Caster made as he fought hoping to decipher his style, so far all she could determine was that he relied on speed more than strength. Shirou was stunned at the level of destruction that was caused by these two titans and figuring out that this war was apparently worse than he thought. Rin was probably the only one, of the masters at least, to be on the verge of a psychotic break, the physically weakest servant class was decimating the physically strongest, not just with magic either. He had managed to cause serious damage to Berserker with his strength just as much as he did with his magic, his non consistency was giving her a mega migraine.

They didn't have their silence much longer as Berserker raised himself up again, the gapping whole in his chest healing as he did. Looking up at his floating killer, and with the help of his monstrous strength, he leapt off the ground, jumping over a dozen meters with ease, and grabbed Eragon by the leg. Falling back down Berserker threw Eragon into the ground causing a crater and making him drop his sword as he crashed.

Eragon picked his battered body up just as Berserker brought down his weapon. But to the surprise of all, including Berserker, Eragon caught it, gritting his teeth as he did.

"What?" Illya froze, "that's not possible,"

"Aaaahhhh!" Eragon put all his strength into this insane move as he picked Berserker up by his weapon, "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" and threw him a good thirty feet from him, a massive pillar of dust spraying up where he landed.

Taking a moment to get his breath back Eragon retrieved his sword from where it had fallen and then leaped at the downed servant with the intent to take another one of his lives.

From his position on the ground Berserker brought his sword across his chest to block the strike but it was not to be. Everyone watched as with the sound of crumbling stone, Berserker's axe sword fell apart, shattering into pebbles as it tried to block the attack from the blue sword.

Eragon managed to make a deep cut right across the servant's body, from his left shoulder to his right hip. He quickly jumped away from Berserker but he wasn't fast enough as the giant managed to backhand him as he took off, throwing him of balance when he landed. It was enough for the beast to rise and deliver a titanic kick to his back that sent him spiralling into the air before crashing into the ground again.

While those present may have expected him to say something, or get up and attack again, they certainly didn't expect him to laugh.

"Now that's what I call a fight," the fake Caster laughed as he stood up, his armour covered in blood.

Now they were wondering about his sanity and if he'd taken one hit too many, was it even possible for a servant to get brain damage. Based on their past encounters, Rin and Saber could agree that Caster was acting way more excited than he was during the fights they had witnessed, and even after taking a massive beating he looked as happy as a kid in a candy shop. Why would he be happy he was just smashed into the ground for what seemed like the tenth time throughout this fight.

One thing this battle between Caser and Berserker clearly showed was that out of all the servants they'd seen so far Caster was the ultimate warrior. He could have killed Lancer after he disarmed him and he could have killed Saber when she lost her armour but didn't, that implied that he was confident enough to beat them any time. He'd shown more of his skills in this fight with Berserker than he had during the entire night, and not just in swordsmanship, he'd shown magic that even Saber wouldn't be able to ignore. All this backed up their earlier speculation that he was the strongest servant in the war, that he had managed to take four of Berserker's lives after using up prana fighting both Lancer and Saber was irrefutable proof.

"Berserker," Eragon said while maintaining his bloody grin, "you are truly a worthy opponent but now I am going to end this fight and kill you permanently,"

Illya began to laugh despite her unease, "Oh, that's funny Caster. Berserker attack Caster and make sure he dies this time."

Berserker growled in agreement and charged.

Caster showed no fear, he merely held out his sword in front of him.

"Well, I didn't think I would have to bring out my noble phantasm on my first day but it looks like I don't have a choice, I was summoned this morning and I didn't even have to use this when I fought Lancer or Saber," Eragon actually looked amused at the thought, "If I'm going to beat that mountain of muscle you have I need to use my secret technique. Get ready to face my nobly phantasm you big brute, this thing is even older than you."

He raised his sword to the sky "Brisingr!"

Everyone watched as his sword was now coated with blue flames, and he hurled it with all his might at the giant lodging it firmly in his chest. Berserker griped the sword and tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge and then the fire coating the blade spread, covering his entire body as it tried to destroy him.

Illya smirked as blue fire engulfed Berserker knowing his noble phantasm would save him, but that smirk dropped at what came next. The giant roared as he died, the flame eating away at his flesh to kill him. Then his body started to rise, regenerating as it did so, but then the mad servant roared again as the blue flames continued to consume his flesh causing him to die once more.

Rather than a clash of blades it had become a battle noble phantasms, one crystalized legend pitted against another. Hercules's God Hand has the ability to resurrect him eleven times granting him a total of twelve lives, and he also gained a resistance to anything that killed him before. This made him tougher to kill as more of his lives were lost.

Brisingr meanwhile is a blade made from celestial metal by the greatest smith of Eragon's age with the aid of the ancient magic of the elves. Eragon's own hands forged this blade, under the control of the elven smith Rhunon, imbuing it with his heart and soul, making the blade burn for as long as he has the energy to sustain it, and he could sustain it for a good long while.

The power of these two crystallised legends clashed against each other in a battle for dominance, each trying to win by overpowering the other.

The blind and burning Berserker lashed out in pain, dying and resurrecting over and over again driving him beyond the madness of his class. Massive chunks of flesh were destroyed from his body, his legs are almost melted to the bone, one of his arms are barely hanging from his elbow and the other is a charred stump, his skin is horribly burned and a part of his face is destroyed, there is no place where he is not wounded. The street is pulverized repeatedly in his rage causing Saber, Shirou and Rin to move back.

After what seemed like an eternity Berserker straightened up, fully healed, as the blue flames finally died out showing which noble phantasm won the war. He had died four times from that attack before his God Hand had finally won out and adapted, rendering the flames of the sword useless. Seeing his flames had done all they could Eragon summoned his sword back to him and got into a defensive stance, he knew beating this thing might take his ultimate trump card. The mad servant roared, even though his mad enhancement he could admit that Eragon was a real threat even to one such as him.

Behind him his master can only stare at the servant that killed Berserker eight times, losing more than half his lives in this encounter, and Caster said that he was only summoned this morning and that he'd fought both Lancer and Saber before he faced Berserker. That meant he was running low on mana while he fought her servant which was a scary thought, if he was at full power them he might have actually destroyed Berserker for good, she didn't know that he drained the prana from one of the jewels on his belt to reenergise himself. She didn't think it possible for any regular heroic spirit to kill Berserker even once, yet this Caster had done so multiple times even challenging the God Hand, demonstrated a technique easily on par with a divine mystery.

"It looks like I underestimated you," she says, "Berserker, we are leaving."

The mad servant grunted in response and picked her up before jumping away. Perhaps she would have to be more cautiously from now on. This Caster was an unknown, and clearly dangerous as he killed Hercules himself eight times, she would observe all the servants in this war before making another move.

As they raced out of sight Illya stuck her tongue at Shirou in a very childish fashion, "I'll kill you next time Onii-chan, Rin."

The others didn't take their eyes of the direction the mad servant went for a full minute before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Well that was fun," Eragon said once he was certain they were gone. He turned to see the three were staring at him with mixed expressions, "what?"

"Really," snarled Rin, "that is all you can say after what you just did." If she wasn't being held back by Saber she might have punched him, despite it being clear that he was way out of their league.

"Oh that wasn't too hard," he said as he healed himself, his wounds closing up and the blood vanishing from his armour.

"Not too hard," she repeated, "that was Hercules, the son of Zeus, you just beat the crap out of him and all you can say is that it wasn't too hard,"

"I was alive when he was around so I know a few things about him," Eragon admitted, "it's safer to deal with him as Berserker than it would be if he were summoned as a different class,"

"How can you say that?" asked Saber, at least now they had an approximate age when this Caster walked the earth.

"While I didn't meet him personally when I was alive, I knew of him. As a Berserker he can do nothing but mindlessly attack, which is a waste. If he had his mind intact this would have been a truly glorious battle, with the full use of his cunning he could have utilised his great skills in archery and the sword and I would have had to actually go all out to fight him. It's such a pity that he's just a mindless brute."

"So what now Caster," asked Saber, "do we fight?"

"Fighting you would serve no purpose Saber, you are nowhere near your full power while I have more than enough mana left to take the rest of Berserker's lives," Eragon said, "fighting you now would only end in your swift defeat, the same goes for her servant,"

"What do you mean by that?" Rin questioned, her eyes narrowed.

"I have nothing to fear from you or your servant," he explained, "him because he was nearly destroyed by my spell and nearly killed by one strike from Saber's sword, despite me healing him, and you because you don't have anywhere near what it takes to so much as scratch me."

"You wanna bet," she growled, bringing her right hand up, even if this did nothing to him she hated being insulted.

Her index finger was aimed directly at Caster's face and her thumb cocked back in the imitation of a gun. A hazy black orb began to form on the tip of Rin's extended finger, accompanied by a whirling noise as the small ball of energy reached its peak before it shot forward with a bang. It shot through the air like a bullet, crossing the short distance to Caster in an instant. Only to freeze before it reached its destination.

"That was rather disappointing," commented Eragon, "I was expecting something more."

He prodded the small ball of energy that was suspended in the air curiously.

Rin could do nothing but stare as her spell hung motionless in the air rendering it ineffective, but her stunned state didn't last long. Another bang sounded then another and another as a constant barrage of black orbs flew at Eragon, with the sound getting louder and louder as the young girl put everything she could into her attacks. Regardless every one of them was stopped, literally suspended in mid-air, and all without a single gesture from Caster who observed the wall of energy with an amused look. Undaunted she continued to fill the space between them with dozens of inky black spheres, her arm was nearly bucking with the force of her shots.

"While this is fun to watch I think we all have places to be so…" with a gesture all of the black orbs vanished as if blown away by the wind, "you might want to give it a rest now,"

"I'm not done yet," panted Rin.

"Yes you are," he replied, almost lazily.

Rin squawked in shock as her left leg was yanked upwards by a mysterious force, she was pulled off her feet completely and her head nearly smashed into the ground as her body swung with the momentum, the tips of her raven pigtails just barely brushing the ground.

Her skirt had fallen from its proper place and now covered her upside down face, inadvertently revealing her red lace panties. Rin slowly spun on an axis as she remained suspended, giving them all view of both sides.

Next to the upturned girl Shirou was doing a perfect impression of a fish, opening and closing his mouth without a sound as he attempted to tear his eyes away from the sight before him.

Saber didn't have such an expression on her face but she did turn red, and like Shirou she couldn't tear her eyes from twirling Rin's form.

Like the other two Eragon could not tear his gaze away, the sight was being burnt into his brain for all eternity. He could never forget that little floral pattern in the shape of a rose positioned directly over the crotch, nor the way the fabric clung to her body. He would never forget the way her struggles made the red lace slowly bunch up between a pair of very firm and well-rounded ass cheeks, showing off more of her creamy skin and what looked like a birth mark.

"Shirou, Saber," she screamed, breaking the stunned silence and getting the two of them out of their trance, "Get me down right now!"

As the red head and the knight attempted to pull her down, avoiding looking at her exposed lower half, Eragon remained where he was, eyes never wavering.

"I've got to admit," Eragon began, "this wasn't my intention at all but I'm certainly not going to complain about the results."

"When I get down from here, you are going to wish that Berserker had killed you, you son of a bitch!" she snarled in response, "Get me down already!"

"Tohsaka, stop struggling,"

"What's taking you two so long? Get me down!" she was now officially pissed.

"As much as I like seeing this I really do have somewhere to be,"

The girl abruptly fell and landed on Shirou who had been tugging on one of her arms. The two students landed in a heap with Rin hurriedly fixing her skirt and accidentally head butting Shirou in the face as they attempted to stand.

"Now I must be off," Eragon said only to stop when Shirou spoke.

"Why aren't you taking this seriously?" he asked, placing a hand on Rin's shoulder.

She was trembling with pure rage, her jaw clenched so hard that Eragon wondered if she would crack her teeth before calming down. He still couldn't help but smirk at her flushed face as he replied.

"Because I want to actually live a little rather than simply be here to fight other servants," his reply was true, "what's the point of being alive if you don't enjoy what life has to offer. All the joys of life, all the pleasures you can experience, if you don't take part in them while you can what's the point of being alive. Well I'll see you around."

He vanished in a flash of blue light leaving the trio alone in the street.

"I think that we should head back to our homes now before anything else happens," Saber said, after double checking to make sure that Caster had truly gone. She didn't trust that he was just waiting for an opportune moment to strike while their guard was down.

"I agree," Rin growled, she was still pissed, "the less chance we have of running into him again the better. Remember this Shirou, come tomorrow morning, we will be enemies,"

"Does it really have to be this way," he asked.

"Yes you moron," she was not in the mood to explain things to him again.

"Very well," he said, "should we walk you to your home, without Archer you could get hurt,"

"I can take care of myself just fine," Rin answered, "I don't need you to walk me all the way home. But, halfway there would be nice," she blushed.

Shirou smiled, "ok then let's go,"

"You are far too trusting Shirou," Rin mumbled quietly so he didn't hear.

After they parted ways near the Rin house, the redhead and the knight walked back to their home in silence, but once they reach the house a discussion is imminent. It took them no more than a few minutes to reach the residence and then Saber brought up what was on her mind.

"Shirou, I have something that I must discuss with you," she said almost immediately after they entered the door and she took the raincoat off.

"What do you want to talk about Saber?"

She sighed, "I wanted to inform you that you cannot supply me with mana. Normally a servant receives a constant supply from their master to maintain their existence in this world, but because we have an incomplete connection I cannot receive any mana from you. Also what Caster said is correct, I did use up most of my mana in the fight with him, he was just so annoying that I wanted him dead no matter the cost. If we cannot fix this connection I will be unable to maintain my existence here and eventually fade away."

"Well then what can we do?" he was concerned, he didn't want her to disappear.

"I am afraid I do not know," she admitted, "I still have a sufficient amount of mana left and I will do what I can to not exhaust it all, but there is still a chance I will run out before this war ends."

"Let's pick this up tomorrow," Shirou yawned, "I'm tired and need to sleep."

"That's another thing Shirou, we need to discuss our sleeping arrangements,"

"Oh," he looks surprised, "well there are plenty of spare rooms you can use," he grabbed some clothes from a cupboard and passed them to her, "you can where these,"

"I will not be separated from you Shirou," she said it as one would state a fact.

"Your room can be the one right next to mine, that's close enough right,"

"I cannot accept that. I must sleep in the same room as you Shirou, it would improve your chances for survival with me there to detect the slightest threats and eliminate them,"

"Saber I can't allow you to sleep in the same room as me," he protested, "You're a girl, its improper,"

"You will be in the most danger when you sleep Shirou," she stubbornly refused to lose this argument, "some servants, particularly of the Assassin class, are able to completely mask their presence and if you are alone there is a much greater chance you will die than if I were present to protect you. I must guard you in case an enemy tries to attack while you're sleeping," her logical explanation trumped his own words before he can even speak.

"But Saber," he tries again.

"No buts Shirou, I will do my duty as a knight and keep you safe, and to do that I must sleep in the same bed as you," She didn't notice the way she said that but the way Shirou's face heats up was making her more annoyed and confused.

"You're not going to give up on this are you," he sighed as she shook her head, "is there any way I can convince you to not sleep in my room?"

"Your safety is my primary concern Shirou, so trying to convince me otherwise would be useless," her tone was one or finality.

"Fine you can stay in my room then," he relented since he knew he wasn't going to win this one as he rubbed his forehead in resignation, "but I am a little uncomfortable with the idea. I'll go grab an extra futon for you."

"Thank you for understanding," she said warmly, glad that he didn't refuse the notion, not that she gave him any choice.

She changed from her battle dress to the casual outfit that Shirou had provided for her, a simple white shirt and blue skirt, good for being out in public without drawing attention as well as sleeping in.

"Saber," called Shirou, "I just want to let you know that the futon's ready,"

"Thank you Shirou, I'll be right there,"

When Saber entered Shirou's room, she noticed that it was rather plain, considering she thought that his room would be decorated in some way. On the floor, there were two futons positioned right next to each other.

"I'll take the one on the left," he said before he went to the futon and collapsed on it, "Good night Saber,"

"Good night Shirou," she replied even before she went to lie on her futon.

She closed her eyes and tried to drift off to sleep but half an hour later she was still awake, unable to get her mind to rest. She kept thinking about Caster and how powerful he was, he had effectively defeated her, Lancer and Berserker all in one night and he'd only used his noble phantasm on the latter, he said he was summoned this morning so he hadn't even been summoned for a full day yet he still had an incredible amount of power left. Her mind kept going over every piece of information she knew about him, what Rin told her as well as what she'd seen and could only come to one conclusion, Caster was going to be damn near impossible to beat. He surpassed her in sword skill, much to her dismay, was strong enough to hold his own against a Berserker Hercules, had speed beyond Lancer and his magic would surely kill her if she got hit effectively rendering her magic resistance useless.

She racked her brain but couldn't think of any hero of legend that was even remotely like this Caster, even knowing his name and that he was alive in the same era as Hercules wasn't much to go on. Then again he did say he'd lived for centuries and that his sword was older than Berserker so maybe the reason his legend wasn't clear was because he came from a time before recorded history. While unlikely it was possible and it could account for his unbelievable power since with heroic spirits, the older or more well know the legend the more powerful the servant. If he came from a time before the known history of the world then not only would he be truly powerful, but finding out any information about him was going to be next to impossible as any historical records wouldn't exist.

She tried to push those thoughts out of her mind when she was caught by surprise as she felt someone hugging her from behind. Shirou had unconsciously turned over in his sleep and grabbed her, pulling her closer to his chest. Her face burned from the contact and how he was holding her to his body, she managed to slip out of his grasp only to see Shirou moving around as if he's searching for something, causing her to smile a little.

She laid back down on the futon and is slowly grabbed again by Shirou. Her cheeks flush as he hugs her and causes something to stir in her chest that she's never felt before. She decided to accept the affectionate gesture, even if it was an unconscious one, and try to get some sleep, tomorrow was a new day in this war. Unlike before, within moments of closing her eyes she enters a dreamless and peaceful sleep in the arms of her master, with no worries about what tomorrow will bring.


	7. Chapter 7

Eragon was back at the temple in a secluded corner of the grounds watching the stars as he contemplated his thoughts, the one most on his mind was why this place felt like it was smothered in a massive amount of mana. It felt similar to an experience he had a while back where all the mana was concentrated in one area to power the defences to a stronghold, he smirked as he remembered the fun he had tearing the place apart. With the concentration of mana so high he was able to recharge his energy, and the gem in his belt, in a matter of hours, much quicker than it would have otherwise taken.

He put those thoughts out of his mind for the moment as he recalled that he had met all the other servants except one, Rider. The only servant he had yet to come into contact with was the one that was the most unpredictable. From what he gathered last night he would be able to defeat all of them if he went all out, he could have defeated them all last night but he didn't want this to be over so quickly. He wanted to fight all of the servants at least once before he actually tried to kill them, battling against fellow warriors was something he enjoyed.

Dawn hadn't even broken before Eragon was summoned by his master, no doubt she wanted him to give a report about his first day. If she hadn't exhausted herself summoning him she might have kept an eye on the city herself. He knew he would have to tell her that he'd met other servants but there were things he was going to keep to himself so he wasn't going to give her all the details. She didn't need to know how they fought or who Berserker was, she could find out about his noble phantasm herself and hopefully get squashed in the process.

He also wasn't going to inform her of his little trip around the city to pick a few things up. He wasn't going to tell her that he'd stolen almost all the jewels in the city along with a lot of precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as a large supply of base metals, she didn't need to know something like that. He also wasn't going to tell her that he'd created an enchanted necklace like the one he had when he was alive to prevent him being spied upon by magical means like scrying. It resembled a silver hammer much like his old one but this one had an enchanted jewel in the centre which would draw on the ambient mana in the air to power it rather than drawing upon Eragon's mana, he'd charged the gem with enough prana to last a few days anyway just to be on the safe side.

Eragon was easily able to carry and hide all his stolen loot due to what he learned from Umaroth and the other eldunari from the vault of souls, they taught him how to bend space to create a miniature pocket dimension. It wasn't infinite but it was incredibly large and certainly big enough to easily hold everything he'd stolen last night.

He entered the room at the temple that she had apparently commandeered as her own and waited for her to address him since she didn't seem the type to want him to speak without permission. He inwardly scoffed, like she could get him to do anything without those command seals, the only reason he went along with her was to buy time to remove her hold over him, something he was confident he could do with enough time.

He'd already scoped out a house last night that he could as a base of sorts to sever his connection to his master. He already had way to break the connection which might work but he didn't have the amount of mana necessary to pull it off, which is why he spent the night using his knowledge in jewel craft to syphon off some of the mana at the temple to increase his supply.

"What did you do last night," asked Caster, addressing him after a few minutes of silence.

"Nothing that important," Eragon replied calmly, "I familiarised myself with the city, saw Archer fighting Lancer at the school, blasted them and fought Lancer, I fought Saber a short while after that and then I went a few rounds with Berserker who is one tough son of a bitch. After all that I came back here."

"You mean to tell me that you fought four servants and you don't think it's important to tell me immediately," she nearly screeched.

"Actually I only fought three since Archer was unconscious at the time," he corrected.

"Please tell me that we don't have to worry about them now since their gone," she said pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I'm happy to inform you that they are still around since I let all of them live instead of killing them, it would be boring if they all died too soon," he could tell is joyful tone was pissing her off.

"You mean to tell me that you could have destroyed four of the enemy servants last night and you let them go so you wouldn't be bored. Are you deliberately trying to piss me off?" Caster said calmly, too calmly.

"Actually yes,"

She rounded on him, her hood falling off in the process giving him a clear look at her face.

A delicate, beautiful face enhanced by vibrant blue hair, he assumed it was natural considering the colour of her eyelashes, which matched her eyes. Her hair was woven into a simple braid behind her ear, a very slender pointy ear.

Eragon blinked, taken aback at the unexpected sight. She could be an elf or more likely descended from them. He let his gaze fall to her breasts, even though they were still covered by her dress. Despite this, her chest was quite prominent and he was gentlemanly enough to not take advantage, at least until she was out of that robe then all bets were off.

"Have I ever told you that I find pointed ears sexy?" Eragon said before he could stop himself.

Caster's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger, "You…"

Seeing her furious expression made him somewhat amused.

With narrowed eyes she advanced towards her irritating servant and when she was near enough to land an attack, she kicked him right in his crotch. Eragon ended up lying on the floor clutching his injured testicles.

"What the hell was that for you damn woman?" Eragon hissed despite the pain.

"You will not think things like that about your master," Caster uttered out in pure frustration.

"Yeah, yeah I hear you. You might want to make that item to stop other servants detecting you today," he groaned as he got to his feet.

"I can make such an item in a few hours with ease," her ears pointed up with determination, it was cute.

Eragon stared at her transfixed for a moment before the edge in her voice broke him out of it.

"You were just having dirty thoughts about me again judging by the way you looked at me, weren't you," she growled, her ears moving up and down with her motions.

"I can't help it when your ears move like that and anyway, there's something I want to know. Why is this place stockpiled full of mana," he said hoping to change the topic and avoid another crotch shot.

"Oh, you can feel that?" she was surprised.

"It's not the first time I've been in a place where there is a high concentration of untamed mana. What I want to know is why this placed is like this when it didn't feel this heavy when I was summoned,"

"I'm gathering mana to help with my victory in this war,"

"That doesn't tell me where you're gathering all this power from," he argued.

"What does it matter? I used much of the stored mana to summon you and the stores have been refilling themselves since you left," she explained, "that's all you need to know,"

"Fine then, don't tell me. I'll be outside doing my own thing,"

He left the room, leaving the temple and going back to his little corner of the grounds to continue his work to build up his supply of mana and his other projects.

As he left he noticed a group of monks who paid him no mind, they didn't even bat an eye at his passing. He could tell just by looking at them that they were heavily fatigued, with their half closed eyes and feet dragging slightly. He would have passed it off as nothing more than a bad night's rest but then he realised that this could be the result of Caster draining mana, if she was drawing it from the whole city then all the inhabitants could start showing signs of tiredness. If he wasn't preoccupied with breaking Casters hold on him he might have tried to stop her, as it was now all he was able to draw some of the mana away from her, maybe that would lessen the effect.

00000

Shirou woke up feeling refreshed after a very strange and exhausting night. Not yet fully awake he snuggled into his body pillow, enjoying the warm feeling it gave… wait he doesn't have a body pillow. Opening his eyes he nearly panicked at what he saw, he's holding Saber closely to his body with his arms around her waist and her head under his chin while their legs were entwined together. Even though she was still sleeping she had a rather content expression on her face.

Shirou was enjoying the warmth that she creates but he had to get up for school, so he ever so slowly wiggled out of her grasp. A small frown appeared on her face once he was out of her grasp, like she knows something is missing. This caused him to smirk as he quietly walked out of the bedroom to start breakfast, with how much food his servant consumed he was going to have to cook enough food to feed a whole army.

A few minutes after he left a pair of green eyes opened, and Saber was refreshed by her peaceful slumber. The first thing she noticed was the lack of Shirou's warm body she was snuggling against and the comforting feeling it gave. Lifting herself up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes she noticed that Shirou was not in the same room as her, and that would have worried her if she could not for the smell coming from the kitchen. The pleasant aroma made her think about the meal she had last night, she drooled slightly as she remembered the taste. She was feeling rather famished and would have liked to go straight to the dining room to feast of the delicacies prepared by her master, she wiped the saliva trailing down from her lips as she remembered the taste of the simple meal he prepared for them last night.

She shook her head to clear it to get her priorities straight, food wouldn't be ready yet so she had time to think about last night, specifically the way that Shirou managed to make her sleep so blissfully. That was not something that she expected but she reluctantly admitted to herself that she liked the feeling of being held close by him, her cheeks flushed as she remembering how wonderful it felt.

She huffed out a frustrated breath as she chided herself that she shouldn't act like that, she was a knight not some damsel. She was not a girl that needed to be protected, but still it felt so nice. Her face reddened, hot by the heat that crept up to her cheeks. What was happening to her?

Shaking her head again she stood up and decided to take a bath to ease her stress and kill time until breakfast, she unconsciously smiled when she saw clothes just like the ones she was wearing by the door, Shirou must have left them there.

She let out a sigh of relief after she got to the bath room, it took a few doors to find. Thanks to the grail granting an understanding of the modern world to servants she knew how to use the bath and ran a hot one. The servant of the sword sighed as she lowered herself into the sizable bath, the hot water soothing her muscles and easing the tension she felt from last night. Then the memory of her naked body on Shirou came to her and she felt herself heat up in a way that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water. After a few minutes she managed to calm herself as she soaked in comforting warm water, but thinking about that incident caused two thoughts to run through her head. The first was that she was going to kill Caster very slowly and the second was what Shirou thought when he saw her.

She berated herself, this was not how she was supposed to behave, she was a knight not some love struck girl.

Getting out of the bath after ten minutes she dried herself off and donned the new set of clothing Shirou left for her. Just like the other set they fit quite well and with a nod of approval she made her way to the dining area and sits down to wait for the food her master would bring. She didn't have to wait much longer.

Shirou had spent his time in the kitchen cooking up a breakfast feast, it couldn't be called a simple meal with the amount of food prepared. Considering how much Saber ate he made what he thought was enough to feed a whole house. After cleaning up he brought the large breakfast out and placed it on the table, it took a couple of trips but soon enough there was a large breakfast on the table with bowls of steamed rice, miso soup, grilled fish, rolled omelette, dried seaweed, hot stew and more. There was enough food to easily feed more than a dozen people, or at least a few people and one Saber.

"Listen Saber," he said as he sat beside her, "I'm having people over for breakfast, I guess you could say they are my family, anyway they are my guardian and my friend. They always visit me in the mornings before going to school, since my father died, and they don't know that I'm a magus so I want to keep them out of this war."

She blinked before she nodded, "Very well Shirou, but how are we going to explain my presence,"

"Um, oh I know. We can say you were a friend of my father and we'll go from there," he knew it was a lame excuse but his father had travelled overseas so it might work. "Don't eat more than one helping of breakfast before they get here, Taiga and Sakura usually come and eat breakfast with me so some of the extra servings are reserved for them,"

"As you wish Shirou," she was a bit miffed that she couldn't take any extra servings yet she knew how to be patient. But if she was kept waiting too long she was going to eat all the food and deal with the consequences later.

Turns out she didn't have to wait long for company to show up as there was a shout from the door almost as soon as she'd finished her first bowl.

"SHIROU!"

He sighed as heard the tiger's roar

"SHIROU! WE'RE HERE!"

'We' meant that Sakura was with her, not surprising since she's here even on the mornings when Taiga isn't. He got up and walked towards the door to let the hungry tiger in and hoped things didn't go too bad when they saw Saber.

Opening the door he sees his friend, the beautiful Sakura, and his guardian/big sister Taiga Fujimura, or as he called her Fuji-nee.

"Good morning, Senpai," Sakura smiled seeing the boy she had a crush on.

"Morning Shirou," Taiga said, but before she could say anything further, the smell of the delicacy that Shirou had made struck her nose, and she swiftly marched past Shirou to get herself some breakfast. "FOOD!" she screamed as ran into the house.

Taiga yelled over her shoulder as she went into the dining room, "Shirou, I'm hungry, I need food," and she stopped when she saw Saber. "Shirou, what's a female doing in your house?! Have you been doing indecent things while I was gone?!"

Saber was caught by surprise when the brown haired woman entered the dining room suddenly and glared at her with burning eyes.

The only male in the house rubs the back of his head awkwardly, "Fuji-nee this is Saber she's… an associate of my father and she's here on business so I let her stay,"

He prayed they would buy it.

"Well then, hello Saber," Sakura says quietly.

"SHIROU!, Fuji-nee roars, he swore he saw a tiger behind her, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER?!"

"She only got here last night," that was the wrong thing to say.

"YOU MEAN YOU HAD A GIRL HERE OVER NIGHT!" She pulled a shinai from who knows where, and swings it down, "DIE!"

However all she hits is air, actually she doesn't even have her shinai to hit with anymore. She grabs the air a couple of times and as she looks around her eyes widen in surprise as she sees Saber holding her shinai.

"You!" she growled, surprised that her weapon had been taken from her so easily.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't attempt to strike Shirou when he has done nothing inappropriate to me while I was here,"

Taiga glares between Shirou and Saber for a moment then sighs heavily, "Fine, you can stay. It's lucky Shirou is such a gentleman or I wouldn't allow this, not one bit," she still glares at Saber and Shirou while she prepares to eat, "I'm still keeping an eye on you though,"

They started plating up their meals and began to eat, even Sakura contributed to the meal as she'd brought over sushi.

"Wow Sakura," Shirou said as he took a bite of the sushi, "this is delicious, the flavour is just perfect,"

"I agree Shirou," Taiga was eating more of the sushi than anything else, "Sakura will be a good wife with cooking like this"

Sakura blushed, "what! I d-don't think…"

"Yes you will," Shirou smiles, "and they're going to love you for your cooking or they don't deserve you,"

Sakura's entire face glowed bright red, if you looked hard enough you could practically see steam coming out of her ears.

"And now the news," said the announcer as Shirou turned on the TV, "early this morning in the residential district surrounding the school the bodies of the entire household were discovered having been brutally murdered. According to official reports the murders were committed with a large edged weapon but as of yet the authorities have no leads on the perpetrator."

"It's been getting dangerous lately," Taiga said, "I don't want any of you out after dark got it, after school you better get straight home,"

"In other news," the announcer moved on, "there have been a series of robberies against jewellery stores and households across the city. From reports, what was stolen was any form of jewellery or jewels, precious metals such as gold or silver and money, this all seems to have happened during the night. Authorities have asked anyone with knowledge of this crime to come forward. On what is possibly a related note, various metals have been stolen from around the city, mainly from construction areas. It is unknown if these two crimes are connected but the investigation is on-going."

"What is going on in this city," muttered Taiga as she turns the TV off, "first murders and now mass theft, it's not going to be safe for anyone soon,"

"How about we forget unpleasant topics for now and continue with breakfast," Shirou says, but then noticed how that's not possible, "well I guess all the foods gone,"

Taiga's head snapped to look at the table and confirmed that nearly all the food was gone, "What? Where did all the food go,"

Then she looked up and saw Saber finishing off her last helping, then sit back with a satisfied expression as she silently wipes her face and drinks her tea.

Saber let out a content sigh, "It was a good meal,"

Taiga was silent for about two seconds before falling to the ground and crying anime tears, "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone sweat drops.

"Uh, don't worry Fuji-nee," Shirou says, "I'll cook an even bigger breakfast tomorrow, how does that sound,"

His honorary big sister sniffs, "you really mean it,"

"Yep,"

"Hooray!" her personality instantly shifts from depressed to ecstatic.

It's not long before they all have to leave for school and after Sakura and Taiga leave Shirou was cornered by his servant.

"Shirou we need to discuss something," said a neutral faced Saber, "considering there's a war on it would be best if you skipped school,"

"I can't do that Saber,"

"I cannot just let you be alone, the school might not be a safe place,"

Shirou sighed, "I don't think Tohsaka will try anything,"

"It's better to be safe than sorry so it would be preferable if I came along as well if you still plan on attending school,"

"You would stick out like a sore thumb and attract stares following me to school. I don't think any master or servant would attack in public anyway so I should be fine and if I get into trouble I'll use a command seal to summon you, ok"

"Unacceptable Shirou," man she's stubborn, "How about I simply follow you, but wait outside the school," she suggested, "I'll follow you home as well just to make sure you're safe,"

Shirou sighed again, "Fine, just leave a bit after me so no one sees us together,"

"Very well Shirou. At least if I'm there you'll be safe if anything happens," she smiled kindly at him causing his face to flush.

00000

Rin halted as she was walking through the school gate when she noticed Shirou heading towards her and not far behind him was Saber, she was a far enough distance away to make it seem like she was not following but still close enough to keep him in her sights. At least he wasn't foolish enough to be out without his servant.

Rin honestly didn't know if she wanted to kill the boy or not, she couldn't do anything with his servant around anyway, but she at least wanted to punish him for seeing her panties last night. He'd better not mention that incident with Caster to anyone or else she'd break him, she'd corner him and make sure he doesn't talk just to be sure.

"Morning Tohsaka," Shirou greeted as he came up to her.

"Shirou, you will meet me on the roof during lunch, no excuses," with that she walked away.

Shirou stood there for a while contemplating why she would want to see him when the bell tolled letting him know he was going to be late for class if he didn't move.

As he ran through the gate Saber sat on a bench across the street from the school, it allows her to have an unobstructed view of the building so if there was trouble she could get to Shirou quickly. She sat there unmoving until noon when she saw a blond young man walking towards her, she was going to ignore him but then he sat down beside her.

"Planning on seeing what school is like in this modern world Saber?" he asked, "you're probable trying to take in everything that's changed since your time, something I believe many servants no doubt do,"

She instantly went on guard, "how do you know my name and that I'm a servant?"

No one should know her name other than those she met last night, which was a short list of Shirou, Rin, Lancer, Caster, Illya and Berserker. She didn't doubt it was possible to figure out her servant class with magic or by the aura which identified her as a servant, but only another servant would sense it. Therefore it was safe to assume he was either a magus or a servant, she was guessing a magus as he didn't have the same presence as a servant.

"You don't recognise me," he put on a fake pout, "I thought we shared something special when I removed your clothes,"

Her eyes narrowed and if they weren't in public she would more than likely have attacked him.

"Caster,"


	8. Chapter 8

"What are you doing here?" she couldn't believe it was a coincidence, him showing up like this when he'd shown up around her last night twice. After finding out his identity she wasn't fazed by his different appearance since he probably used magic to blend in which would explain why she couldn't sense him.

"Do I need a reason to be here," he asked, "I could have just been walking around and happened upon you sitting here by yourself and wanted to give you some company,"

"Your company is not something I want, now tell me why you are here,"

"You just can't except that this could be a happy coincidence can you,"

"This is not happy and I doubt it is a coincidence so I ask again, why are you here?"

"Fine, you got me. I'm secretly planning to attack you right here in broad daylight in front of a school," Eragon replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Really," Saber stated dryly as she glared at him, not appreciating his humour, her eyes silently conveying that he'd better tell her what she wanted to know or else.

The fake Caster sighed, "Ok, I got bored and decided to try and find Rider so I can meet all the servants, Rider is the only one I've yet to cross paths with,"

"So I take it that means you know where Assassin is," since he'd fought her, Lancer and Berserker last night, and seen Archer, that meant he'd at least seen the shadowy servant if Rider was the only servant he hadn't seen yet.

"He was somewhere in the shopping district when I saw him last night," he spun his tale flawlessly, it was partly true as he had taken a trip through that area before he fought Lancer, "he disappeared before I could get a fight out of him,"

The two sat in silence until the almost certainly out of his mind dragon rider broke it in a way that was just asking for Saber to take his head off.

"So," he said, "have you done the deed with your master yet?"

"What!" she went deep red and her outburst had attracted attention. She immediately schooled her features and said in a low voice, "what would possess you to ask such a question,"

"I noticed you didn't deny it," he smirked, making her stammer, "I'm simply asking since you were on top of him last night, naked I might add,"

"And whose fault was that," she interrupted.

"Mine of course, but you two were pressed very closely together, I thought you would have killed him for groping you like he did,"

"I'm not going to harm my master," she couldn't believe he was actually saying these things, she couldn't stop herself blushing.

"So you didn't mind it,"

"I…I…" she couldn't form a coherent response.

Eragon was laughing as Lancer walked past them with a bottle of scotch in his hand.

"Hello my fair Saber and irritating Caster, what are you doing here?" Lancer asked as he took a seat between them.

"I'm just embarrassing little Saber here about a situation she got into with her master, apparently she doesn't mind him putting the moves on her as they say in this modern time," Eragon answered not attempting to suppress a grin as Saber flushed again.

"You have got to tell me what happened," Lancer eagerly wanted to know what could make someone like Saber turn this shade of red.

"Nothing happened Lancer," Saber was beginning to wonder if the entire Holy Grail war was showing up at this school, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted a drink so I skipped out on my master," Lancer answered honestly.

Saber just stared at him while Eragon laughed.

"I said the next time we meet I would out drink you so let me see the quality of spirits you have," the fake Caster would have loved to be in a bar drinking himself blind and staying upright long enough to see Lancer fall.

"Very well Caster," the spear wielder said, passing the bottle over.

Eragon took a swig before handing the bottle back, "that is some weak stuff compared to what we had in my day,"

"I agree with you there," said Lancer also taking a swig, "I've tried a few of these modern drinks and I can honestly say that the quality has gone down quite a bit. In my time one mug of the strong stuff and you'd be on your ass in no time,"

"That's nothing," Eragon chimed in, "in my time the mere whiff of the strongest drink was enough to make any man feel like their head was hit with a battle axe. I remember getting into a drinking contest with a few urgals and I was the second to drop out, not bad when you consider that they had the tolerance of a dozen men,"

"We have really got to see who outlasts who in a drinking game," Lancer said, "I'm a little disappointed we can't share any of our old war stories since we have to hide our identities,"

A loud growling noise interrupted their banter, it came from Saber who once more blushed in embarrassment.

"How about we get something to eat and I'll give both of you the overview story of my life, I can tell you of the many battles I took part in," Eragon had no problem revealing his past to fellow warriors.

"You would tell us you past without a second thought," enquired Saber.

"Why not, it's not like were in battle right now and it will pass the boring time between bouts,"

"Battle has always been this way," shrugged Lancer, "hours upon hours of boredom then a few minutes of excitement, sometimes a few hours if you're lucky. Then it's over and you're off to the tavern again,"

"The same can be said for the art of love," commented Eragon, "hours searching for a woman to bed and a short time of excitement, although for me it was hours of finding the right girl and then hours more making them scream my name. I made sure my partners receive a minimum of twenty orgasms from me,"

That actually made Lancer pause and blink, "you're making the rest of us men look terrible,"

"Would you two not talk about such things," Saber almost shouted.

"You're right, we should get some food so you won't be distracted from my tale. Either of you got any money,"

"I have my master's credit card," said Lancer.

"Good then you're buying," and the dragon rider from a time before time dragged them off to sample the delicacies of the city.

They spent the next three hours going from place to place eating at different pubs, bars and takeout's, the pizza was very delicious. But all good things must come to an end so eventually they were back on the bench outside the school, though they still had a box of pizza and a few drinks with them.

Eragon put up a ward so normal people, those without magic, couldn't listen in and would simply walk around them.

"You wish to know my story, then hear the tale of one who endured far longer than anyone has before or since,"

Eragon downed a whole bottle before he let out a sigh and began his tale.

"I may have wielded my sword in numerous battles for centuries, but I lived far longer than that, for many millennia in fact. I saw the construction of each of the pyramids, I was even a pharaoh for a few years for the hell of it and slept with Cleopatra, I saw the rise and fall on Babylon, watched the brutal and bloody Trojan War, bared witness to the campaign of Alexander the great, that man loved his wine and was one of the few who could out drink me. I memorized the entire contents of the library of Alexandria, even the magical sections which believe me was nowhere near small, before I accidentally destroyed it. I even saw the rise and fall of the Roman Empire," Eragon had a far off look as he remembered those times, "Although me and Nero had one hell of a complicated relationship that usually ended with me getting punched in the face. I've been many things in my time a general, a king, a wanderer, a chronicler, a rich man and a poor man, the most revered and the most feared as the ages turned,"

He found the reaction from both Saber and Lancer was amusing, their mouths hung open and they were blinking in unison.

"Anything else to add," Saber managed to get out.

"That's pretty much the big events I was present for, unless you want to count my old friend Merlin," that made Saber flinch but fortunately neither Eragon nor Lancer noticed.

"So you knew Merlin," she had to ask in case he knew her true identity.

"We were old friends," Eragon chuckled, "I knew him when he was a kid and taught him a few things, I didn't stick around for long though. The last time I saw Merlin was shortly after he stuck Caliburn in that stone, that sword was truly a thing of beauty. I wish I could have met the one who pulled it from the stone."

"What do you mean?" asked Saber, who was nervous that her identity could be revealed.

"I died before Caliburn was pulled free so I never met the one known as King Arthur."

Saber let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, she was safe.

"That's really too bad," Eragon continued, "Because I would have liked to cross swords with him to see how skilled he was. Ah well, I guess it's just one of those things we'll never know."

Saber had to refrain from commenting that he had crossed swords with King Arthur and that he'd beaten her.

"If I may ask, where was your homeland?" inquired Saber.

Eragon sighed "My homeland of Alagaesia was where India and Tibet are in this time, in fact the Tibetan mountains were called the Beor Mountains in my era," his eyes took on a faraway look as he remembered the place he once called home. "It had a blazing desert I crossed with my friend and I spent my childhood in the village of Carvahall near a snowy mountain range called the Spine, it was truly a magical place. Even back before I had magic, when I was a simple boy living a simple life I was skilled with a blade, hell I even killed any bandits I found in the Spine to get a bit of extra gold. Ha, I don't know if you'd believe me but I actually started out as a simple farm boy who wanted nothing more than to live a quiet life, I even found the one person I could trust completely in the Spine and for a time I was happy" his face suddenly became hard and his eyes visibly showed enough hatred to make even his battle hardened listeners flinch, "that was until the Ra'zac came. They murdered my uncle and destroyed my home and that's what started me on my path. Galbatorix sent them to my home where they killed my uncle and forced me to flee and I swore that I would end him and his empire even if it killed me."

Eragon had to calm himself down before he could continue, even now, countless centuries later he still felt an all-consuming hatred to anything related to the empire or that mad king.

"I used to be so happy, caring about nothing but my family and my village, not giving a damn about the world outside my home, but that all changed in a single evening. I went from a happy kid who just wanted a quiet life to a cold and serious man in the span of a few hours, quite the change when you think about it. I trained in magic and the sword learning anything I could that would help me defeat him, I even joined the Varden who opposed the mad king. My first teacher was my father, though I didn't know it at the time, and he taught me how to survive and later on how to use magic," he almost cried at the thought of his father and how the Ra'zac killed him. "My second teacher was an elf centuries older than I was," Eragon smiled fondly remembering Oromis, "he had to condense several centuries of knowledge into a few months. I managed to learn everything he had to teach but I never want to focus that hard again."

"My old teacher would commend you on being so dedicated to you studies," Lancer said, Scathach was not quiet in her desire that he should have been more dedicated to his training and often reprimanded him for spending more time drinking than training.

"That sounds like my teacher," Eragon responded, "I learned so much, trained so much, and killed so many that I eventually stopped keeping track, my sword alone cut down more than half a million foes and I slaughtered just as many, maybe more, with my magic and bare hands. I sent boulders raining onto entire armies, burned them to ash and fried them with lightning. On the battlefield I was a monster, I mercilessly carved my enemies into dozens of pieces, leaving severed arms, legs, heads, organs and mangled chunks of flesh of the dying in my wake as they screamed in fear and pain. My horrific rampages left the bodies the dying and the dead all over the place as their blood created a large pool of crimson filed with even more corpses of the dead. Outside of battle I spent most of my time either drinking, with my constitution getting drunk was hard, or reading old tomes and learning anything that would help me get revenge on the mad king."

Lancer gave a low whistle, "you are definitely one crazy guy, if you were really that brutal I can see why I would have trouble beating you,"

"Agreed," commented Saber, "if what you say is true then having centuries of battles like that would make you a formidable warrior indeed,"

"Are you kidding, I hadn't even reached twenty by the time I did all that," he said, shocking the other two servants even more. "And I did much more than that. I would hang men by their entrails so I could see the look in the eyes of my allies and determine if there were any traitors amongst them and if I found any traitors I would crushed their skull with my foot and display the headless corpse for all to see, so they knew the price for treachery. Most of the battles were small numbers of a few thousand each which I easily won, but the one time I'm away that mad king sent an army of more than one hundred thousand soldiers to face the Varden with the help of a few hundred magic users, it wasn't pretty. The Varden only had half that number and by the time I got there they had lost about a third of their troops while the enemy had barley lost a tenth. As soon as I drew my sword the tide of battle turned. The earth shook and the sky burned, the screams of the dying filled the air and pleas of mercy came from both sides, that was when they knew one terrifying fact, I had entered the fight."

He paused as he remembered the battle of the burning plains and the mountain of corpses he left in his wake. The Varden knew he was a blood thirsty beast when in battle, having seen him in many conflicts, but that battle changed how they looked at him. "That was the battle that changed how my allies saw me. They used to look at me with fear but after that day they could only look at me with utter terror. I spilled so much blood in my quest for revenge that even my closest allies were all but terrified of me, and they gave me a name that that was definitely appropriate given my signature fire spell. They called me the sapphire blaze since wherever my blue fire was seen death wasn't far behind. I scorched earth so badly that nothing has grown on it since, even after all these millennia."

"I get the feeling this story is not one you tell to children," Lancer commented.

"On the contrary my story, well most of it, was told children in Alagaesia for centuries," Eragon corrected, "anyway, it was on that battlefield where I fought my friend who had disappeared in a previous conflict and I learned that while I can deal with the kings soldiers and pet magicians, I was unable to easily fight someone he had altered in a way so I would have to give it my all. I was weak from the battle and was not at full strength when he came so I couldn't save the dwarven king from his attack. We fought and while I was able to blind one of his eyes I could not defeat him, and it was after my defeat that I learned he was my brother. I managed to convince him not to take me back to the king but I lost the sword I had at the time as a result. The sword I wield now was forged for me later."

That fight with his brother had been one of the few times he had been defeated and showed him there was still much to learn. Not only that but the feeling of betrayal he experienced when he found out Murtagh was his brother and also his enemy cut into him and made him harden his heart so he could do what must be done. If he hadn't then he might not have gotten his revenge.

"After that it was pretty much the standard march to war and kill the enemy thing which ended with a whole lot of dead bodies and one destroyed empire. It was in this final chapter of the war that I killed my brother and the mad king, I tore the source of their power away from them and struck them down without hesitation. I loosened up a bit after that and tried a few things I didn't bother with during the war, blacksmithing, women, mining, women, ale, women and anything else that caught my eye. Did I mention women? I stayed in my homeland for a few centuries but by that time it had changed, the elves and dwarves had left and the humans had torn Alagaesia apart in many civil wars, it got so bad that they whipped themselves and any evidence of their existence from the world. After spending all that time in one place I decided to travel and see the world. I spent millennia going from place to place experiencing and learning new things, I did this for longer than anyone would believe. I met many interesting people and even influenced events but after so many millennia wandering the world I decided that I'd seen enough, that my life had gone on long enough," this next part was difficult for him to say. "I died by my own hand, using my own flames to destroy my body and sword turning them to ash. After so long of living my seemingly endless life had finally come to an end by my choice, and I will treasure all the memories I made forever. Any questions," concluded Eragon.

His audience were somewhat stunned by his revelation, they were staring at him wide eyed with looks of wonder and respect. The things he'd done, the feats of power he described, his long life and even his death told the story of someone who was a warrior deserving of their respect, it was no wonder he got into the throne of heroes.

"I have one," Saber managed to get out, "if you were called the sapphire blaze where did you get the title 'shade slayer'?"

"A shade is a sorcerer who has been taken over by the spirits they attempted to control," he explained, "They are many times stronger than a human, they would rival servants like us, and can only be killed by a blade to the heart, anything else and they simply reform. Few people ever killed a shade and lived, and I was the first to do so singlehandedly, they gave me the tile for killing Durza who was one evil bastard,"

"You want to ask anything Lancer," Saber enquired.

The spearman shrugged, "Not really, but I am interested to know what someone like you would use the grail for,"

"I have no interest in the grail," Eragon admitted, "I'm simply here to have a good time, which means food, drink and fights, I'll try and fit women in there somewhere. What about you?"

"I also don't have a wish, I just want to fight strong opponents," Lancer stood up, "I think I better get back to my master before I'm missed, even if he is a bastard, catch you guys later and maybe next time we can actually fight," he said as he walked away.

"Looking forward to it Lancer," Eragon called after him.

"I like you Caster, even if you're doing it wrong. I liked fighting you Saber, at least you're doing it right," Lancer called back.

"Doing it right?" Saber wondered what he meant by that.

One he was sure that Lancer was well out of hearing range Eragon turned to Saber and asked, "what about you Saber, if you had the grail what would you wish for?"

She hesitated before answering, "I would wish for my homeland's salvation, to save my beloved country, something I could not do in life,"

"So you would change was has been, to alter the events of the past," he said with a frown, "do you intend to erase the marks that you yourself left on history,"

"Yes, I regret the fate of my country for it was I who was responsible for its ruin," her voice was mournful as she remembered her country, "If another had ruled then it could have been spared its fate,"

"That is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard in my entire life and considering how long I was around that is saying something,"

"What?" she was utterly bewildered by his statement.

"No one can save a country from its own destruction, not you or even me. Nothing last forever not matter how much you want it to, I'm proof of that. Even though I lived for millennia I eventually died, everything disappears in the end, that's something that can't be changed. Something only has value because it has an end,"

"Even so my country could have been spared its fate had another led them," Saber argued, "If that was so then it wouldn't have ended in civil war and could have had a longer, more peaceful existence. For my country's prosperity, I am willing to sacrifice my place in history,"

"If you changed the past would the soldiers that fought beside you stay the same, would they have even met if you hadn't made the choices you did? You are a leader I can tell, I can sense an aura of charisma about you, and if you had not led you men, if someone else had led them, would they have been the men you knew," Eragon spoke in a serious tone she hadn't heard him use even when he fought Berserker.

"They would have been better off with a different leader than I," Saber replied, "if it was someone else they might have lived. Because I could not save my country I will find one who can, someone who was more worthy to be king than I,"

"But what if you failed," Eragon countered, "what if you failed and the result was many times worse than what occurred originally,"

"I was chosen as the most worthy to lead but in the end I led my country to ruin, it seems I too ended up being unworthy," she said sadly.

"So you were the most worthy out of how many unworthy, if another ruled what would happen. If all others were unworthy what does that say about them, and you would have one of them rule in your place, you are an idiot."

"I was a king that let my country, to which I devoted my entire life, be destroyed. I failed to protect my subject and my kingdom tore itself apart."

"A king does not devote himself to the country, the country and its people that must devote themselves to their king and his goals. A king must lead, a king must stand above all of his subjects, he does not serve anyone or anything," Saber was shocked into silence at hearing the same words the Rider of the previous war had thrown back at her.

"You're wrong, a good king must do what is right for their kingdom no matter the cost, even be a martyr for their ideals," Saber replied hotly, "As king I had to stand alone from others in order to protect and serve my country and in the end it fell,"

"Do you even know what makes a great king," Eragon growled causing her to flinch, "A king does not stand alone, he stands supported by those he trusts and those who trust him. Without that trust there is no foundation that can endure and the kingdom will fall. You ruled without being all a king should be. A king must embody the extreme of all things and is what his subjects aspire to be like. In war a king must rage for much longer than his subjects, in peace he must laugh more loudly and in sorrow he must shed more tears than any other, that is why his subject adore him. From the way you tell it, you closed yourself off from your humanity because you thought displaying human emotion was a weakness for a king,"

Saber felt like she was having the same conversation at the king's banquet with Iskander with the way Eragon spoke. He did say he knew the man in life and the way he spoke about what a king should be definitely confirmed it for her. She couldn't believe the same words were being spoken back to her by someone other than the king of conquerors.

"From what you've told me you're not trying to do what is right for your kingdom. The way I see it you're just running away from the fact that your actions have consequences, that's the action of a coward not a king. Whether the actions you took were right or wrong I cannot say by they were your actions none the less and you must take responsibility for them. Someone who does not take responsibility for their actions is nothing but a coward and that's all that needs to be said,"

"My actions destroyed my country, if I change the selection of the king then my country will prosper more greatly than if I held the throne,"

"Foolish, very foolish. When I was younger I once thought along similar lines to you Saber, in my past are things that I would prefer never happened and some which I feel would be better off if I hadn't interfered. I mourn events that I couldn't change, shed tears and raged over the lives lost because of my decisions and I even regret some of the choices I made, but I am content with how my life turned out and wouldn't dream of undoing any of it as it came to pass by my own decisions. Such an act would be an insufferable insult to all those who fought, bled and died for what they believed in." His eyes became hard as he faced her, "Saber instead of regretting your own decisions think, would you disgrace the sacrifice of your fellow warriors just so you can feel better, do you believe those who fought beside you would want their deeds undone," Eragon's words cut into her as though they were blades of steel. "If so then you are not someone I can consider a warrior, but rather a little girl who cannot accept the consequences of her actions."

"I…" Saber was unable to find the words to counter his argument.

"Did you even think about any of them when you decided on this course of action?"

"Of course I did,"

"So you would wipe out all their accomplishments, all of their deeds, just to make yourself feel better, those are the actions of a selfish coward not a warrior or a king," he got up and started to leave, "think about those who followed you and what your wish could mean for them Saber," and with that he was gone, leaving the former king alone with her thoughts.

Ten minutes later Shirou walked out of the school and saw Saber sitting across the road with a contemplative expression on her face. When he walked over to her she turned to face him only to find that he was staring at her.

"Shirou, what is it?"

"Um, you have some pizza sauce on your cheek," he pointed out, "It… it makes you look cute,"

Saber once more found herself blushing deep red, "oh, I see," she quickly wiped the sauce from her face.

"I'll be heading home now, follow me in a minute ok,"

"Ok,"

Exactly one minute after he left Saber discreetly followed her master back the house, keeping an eye out for any threats. The words of Caster rang in her head since he left and were still on her mind as she entered the door not long after Shirou.

00000

That night Eragon was leaping about the city trying to find Rider, the one servant he had yet to encounter. He might not even locate the servant as it was a possibility that they were taken out already by another servant, but that seemed unlikely as his master informed him that no servants had been eliminated yet. He stopped on a rooftop suddenly as he sensed a servant close by. Moving into range he had been expecting to confront the other servant but when he was behind her, he saw a sight that he never thought he'd see again.

The servant was not only familiar to him, she was also beautiful, ridiculously so in an exotic way, in short she was stunning.

She was tall with extremely long and slender legs that led up to a shapely backside. She was pale but not to the point of looking unhealthy with a very attractive face hidden behind a blindfold. She wore a tight black and purple strapless dress that clung to her body like a second skin, struggling to contain her large breasts and revealing the creamy unblemished skin of her shoulders and thighs. Similarly coloured covers adorned her slender arms with thick purple bracers encircling her wrists and her legs were clad in thigh high tights that trailed off into sturdy boots. Around her neck she wore a purple collar identical in colour to the blindfold covering her eyes and upon her forehead was a bright red mark like some kind of tattoo.

But what caught his attention, before any of this, was her silky, violet coloured hair that ran down the smooth expanse of her neck, the gorgeous strands almost but not quite touching her ankles. He remembered that hair, remembered it splayed out as her face showed pleasure from post orgasmic bliss. There was only one person with hair like that and it was someone he'd loved so long ago. Someone who screamed his name to the heavens in pleasure, whose soft skin he'd caressed and whose eyes were more beautiful than diamonds in his opinion.

"Medusa,"


	9. Chapter 9

"Medusa,"

"Eragon," she was as surprised to see him as he was her, "you're still alive, no you have the presence of a servant, that means you died. How did you die, what could have killed someone as powerful as you?"

"I ended my own life because I was tired," he admitted, "You know what it's like to live a long time. So you're the Rider of this war, guess that means I'll be dealing with Pegasus won't I,"

"How do you know my class?"

"I've met all the other servants, Rider was the only one left," he couldn't help but feel slightly aroused seeing her in those clothes, "you sure are a dressed like a little minx, aren't you,"

She remained silent, a small dangerous yet alluring smile the only answer he received.

"So what class are you?"

"I'm Cas…" he couldn't say it, he'd never lied to her in the past and he couldn't do it now, "actually I was summoned as Assassin by the Caster of this war. I came up with the idea of impersonating Caster so I could find a way to get out of her control,"

"You never were one to be controlled were you, even the gods couldn't make you submit to them,"

"You got that right, I'm not one to take orders from others unless it serves my purpose,"

The two were silent for a few minutes before Eragon decided to break it.

"So um, have you been well?" he was unsure what to say in a situation like this, even with the blindfold he could tell she was glaring at him. He didn't blame her, he did leave rather abruptly back in the day.

Medusa didn't give a verbal reply, instead she punched him full force in the face. He staggered from the impact but remained on his feet, he was always a lot stronger than her.

"What the…" he was immediately silenced by her lips on his.

She ran her hands through his hair as she gave him a deep, passionate kiss as she pressed her body against his. He didn't even try to push her away, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her ass a squeeze electing a moan from the gorgon. The kiss only lasted a couple of seconds before she pulled back and suddenly punched him again, this one sending him to the ground. Looking up from where he landed he saw nothing, Medusa had vanished and she had ways to avoid detection so tracking her down would be a challenge.

"That could have gone better," he said to himself as he got up "well at least she didn't try and kill me,"

00000

Medusa jumped from the rooftops, putting some distance between her and her past lover as her thoughts turned back to her summoning. She had been summoned the previous evening and then true her master had been forced by the old man in the room to give up control of her to a boy who had no circuits and was a pathetic master she utterly loathed.

Her master had refused to give up her servant, she was incapacitated by something within her own body as the old man tore the command seals from her and gave them to the boy in that book of his. With that book she was bound to the boy, needless to say she wasn't very happy about it and was plotting ways to free Sakura from them.

She had been scouting the city as ordered when she noticed the feel of something familiar close to her. The presence had been almost identical to that of her one and only lover and she paused as she contemplated the thought. She knew the man she loved was an ageless being, far older than even the gods that banished and cursed both her and her sisters, he lived un-ageing through time doing whatever he desired without submitting to anyone. He was the first and only person she ever truly loved and the passionate bliss they shared showed his stamina was greater than Poseidon, though she still found it hard to believe that he actually managed so shag Aphrodite into a sex coma.

Eragon was the most powerful person Medusa had ever knew, he was stronger than even the gods of her time since he'd personally killed Ares, Apollo and even Hades. When those gods tried to impose their will on him he took them out permanently, he was not one to take orders.

Oh how she would have loved to see him again, it was entirely possible that he was still alive in this day and age. She got the shock of her life when she heard her name being called by the one man she loved with all her heart.

When she saw him her heart skipped a beat and she could scarcely believe her eyes, the one man, the only man she had ever loved was still in this world. But then she realised he was a servant, and he said he'd killed himself because he'd got tired of living his eternal life.

When he asked her how she'd been, he actually had the nerve to ask that after he disappeared, she just had to hit him. Then being so close to him after all this time she kissed him, and she just it felt like heaven, hitting him a second time was more to get a message across than anything else.

A flash of light brought her out of her thought as Eragon appeared before he, how did he even know where she was, then it hit her. He taught her the tricks to avoiding detection so naturally he would know how to track her and she'd forgotten he could teleport, considering the number of times she'd seen him do it she should have remembered.

Before she can turn and escape he grabbed her and held her in his arms just like all those years ago. He removed her blindfold and stared into her eyes, they were just as he remembered them, light grey with rectangular irises. Her petrifying gaze didn't work on those with high enough mana levels so naturally her eyes had no effect on him, just like when they were both alive.

"Now this brings back memories," he said, giving her a squeeze.

Her face was hot and flustered and she couldn't stop panting, her heart beat in her chest like a jackhammer, as her entire body heat up as it did every time she was about to make wild and passionate love to him. As much as she wanted this was not the time for romance, she needed to save her true master.

"Let me go Eragon,"

"If I did that I wouldn't be able to make you feel ultimate pleasure,"

She did not take his response well as she spun out of his grip, launching a kick at Eragon almost striking him.

"What did I tell you before," he said as he dodged another kick, "to take down the enemy you must use the most effective method, well I know what method to use to subdue you,"

Eragon quickly disappeared before appearing behind Medusa, catching her off guard, and held her hands behind her back. He then sucked on her neck causing a moan as she was paralyzed by his knowledge of her pleasure spots.

His released her hands now that she wasn't fight back, "I missed you my sweet,"

"If you think things can be like they were before you're wrong,"

"I don't expect you to forgive me,"

"Damn right. You left me, no explanation you just up and left," he could feel her growl, "I died when you left, my heart was broken and my sisters became less joyful. I was even killed by that man, something you could have prevented if you had stayed,"

"I never stay in one place for too long, until I found you the longest I remained in one place was two centuries. I spent more than five hundred years with you, Saphira and I enjoyed the peace of the island, but I had moved from place to place for millennia so it was time for me to move on. I never stopped loving you Medusa,"

"Oh I know that's a lie," she interrupted, "admit it, you have been with countless women before and after you met me,"

"I'm not going to deny it, I've lost count of the number of women I've been with," he admitted, he wasn't going to tell her the tally was over a million he had more sense than that, not a lot more but some. "I lived so long that eventually I stopped keeping track of the women I bedded, but the number of women I loved I can count on one hand,"

"Oh really," she didn't know whether to believe him or not, but he had never lied to her, even telling her the truth of his summoning.

He smiled, not a cocky smile but a genuine one, "there was Arya back in Alagaesia, there's you, and the other two I'll keep to myself. I may have been with many women Medusa, but those I love are few and far between,"

There was silence for a few minutes with both servants simply stared at each other, that was until it was broken.

"So what happened to you and Saphira after you left?" Medusa asked, still not happy with his explanation but a little less angry than before.

"We travelled for a few centuries, doing what we always did but eventually she was killed," he had tears in his eyes as he spoke, "I butchered the ones responsible and had to go on without her. I lived more than four hundred years after her death before I decided to end my life, I just couldn't go on without her anymore," Medusa put a gently hand on his shoulder as he cried, "she was the voice of reason for me, the one who always made sure I didn't get in over my head,"

"Considering that you always ran into trouble she didn't do a very good job," she quipped, causing him to laugh.

"That's not completely my fault, for me trouble is like a wolf constantly stalking waiting for the opportunity to strike," he became sombre once more. "After she was gone, all I had left of her was a phial of her blood and a scale, I kept both close to my heart until I had had enough of the world. I gave them to my old friend slash part time apprentice Merlin, a few decades after he stuck Caliburn in that stone, to do what he will with them. I don't know what he did but I'm sure they were put to good use," he sighed again, he ended his life the very night he handed those things over.

He didn't know that Merlin used both the blood and the scales to give Saber a magical core which is fundamentally different from the circuits of a normal magus. The circuits of a normal magus act much like a machine which creates magical energy, however her magical core operates more like a factory with a tremendous capacity for generating magical energy.

This also caused her to gain a resistance to magic that helped her through numerous battles throughout her life. She faced many magic users in her time and while many of her men fell she fought on and prevailed, none of that would have been possible if Eragon had not given the blood and scales to Merlin, he indirectly created Saber.

"So what are you planning to do now?" she asked, once his tears stopped.

"I'll just do what I always do, you do know what that is right,"

"I always had trouble figuring out what you'd do next," the pink haired servant said, "you regularly go from behaving like a hyperactive five year old, to smiting people and casually throwing around more power than even the gods could ever hope to match, to flirting with anything with boobs, to speaking with the wisdom of someone who'd seen ten thousand years, sometimes all at once. Don't take it the wrong way beloved, but trying to figure you out is like trying to count the stars in the sky, no matter how long I try it will never be done,"

"Ten thousand years, was I ever that young," Eragon chuckled.

"How would I know," Medusa pouted, "you never told me how old you really were,"

"You really want to know how old I am," he asked getting a nod in return, "ten thousand years, twenty thousand, you'd have to go back further than that to find my age. I was old before the last ice age was fully passed, a millennia is nothing to one who had endured as long as I. My world was ancient long before I was born and lasted centuries more after I arrived before it fell. The remnants of it, its people and history, were completely destroyed, as far as the world is concerned Alagaesia never existed,"

"When you say things like that I wonder how you could have lived for so long. You lived for countless millennia before Greece had gods, and have done things that even they would envy, how you managed any of that is beyond me," she said.

Eragon was silent with a contemplative look on his face for a while before he spoke again, "a dragon rider stops aging not long after the bond between dragon and rider is formed letting them live for millennia. We cease to age but we are still vulnerable to death by disease, accident, the hand of another. My power was part of the bond but my training made me even stronger and having hundreds of Eldunari funnel their power into me for centuries increased my already incredible power levels and lifespan beyond anything thought of before,"

"So you owe you very long existence to these Eldunari?" she asked.

"Not really," he explained, "I could have lived just as long without them but I doubt I would have been as energetic or powerful, I guess you could say they refreshed my youthfulness to keep me from getting bored,"

"You getting bored would mean trouble for everyone else," she said and leaned against the wall.

Eragon knew Medusa well enough to know that her posture was not as relaxed as it may seem, to him it revealed a sense of despair and anger. He'd seen her face twitch ever so slightly that anyone else would have missed it, now he knew something was wrong since the only time she was this quiet was when she was planning something. If she was planning something chances are high that it's dangerous and he was not going to let her go it alone.

"Ok Medusa, what's bothering you," he didn't have to see her eyes to know they went wide when he said that.

"Nothing," she denied it too quickly.

"I know you better than that my love, I don't even have to read your mind to know when something's bothering you, now spill,"

Medusa bit her lip in thought, Eragon was powerful and knowledgeable so it was very possible that he could help her free her true master from those vile creatures she lived with. If he had a way to escape his master's control then maybe he could get her out of Shinji's control and back with Sakura.

She sighed, putting her blindfold on and walking to the edge of the rooftop, "my current master is not my true master, she is more of a prisoner to those vile beasts. I want her to be free of them and I'm not strong enough to do it alone,"

"What has your false master ordered you to do?"

"He cannot supply me with mana so I have to feed on humans to sustain myself. I am supposed to set up a barrier 'Blood Fort Andromeda' around the school to drain everyone in there to increase my strength,"

"How long before it's complete," Eragon need a timeframe, his mind working furiously to come up with a plan.

"A day or two, why," even with the blindfold he could feel her gaze.

"I might have a way to help both you and your master but I need time, can you delay finishing the barrier for a few days so I can set things up," his plan may work if he can get everything ready.

"How much time do you need?" if she knew Eragon, and she did, he wasn't going to offer help unless he could actually succeed.

"Four days should do it, by then I should have everything prepared. Have any of the other servants or masters seen you since you were summoned," he inquired.

"Aside from you no one has seen me,"

"That's good, if no one's seen you then I can pretend to be Rider while you lay low," he said.

"What?" now she was confused.

"I'll pull the same trick I'm pulling for Caster, I'll pretend to be Rider so no one attacks you," if he could impersonate Caster he could pull off Rider. "Three nights from now I want you to meet me at the school so I can tell you what you need to do on the fourth day, can you get away for a few minutes that night,"

"It shouldn't be a problem but my 'master'," she spat the word with distaste, "will not let me out of his sight easily so I will have to come up with a reasonable excuse,"

He grabbed her firm behind and gave her luscious ass a squeeze causing her to let out an involuntary moan, "you're a smart girl, I'm sure you can think of something," he whispered into her ear.

When she turned around to slap him for that squeeze he was gone.

00000

Eragon leapt from rooftop to rooftop as he made his way across the city to do what he had originally intended. He can honestly say he didn't expect any of that to happen when he went scouting, seeing Medusa again brought up all his old feeling. What she said about her real master being a prisoner and her false master being apparently someone she absolutely hated made him want to help, heck even if she wasn't his old flame he would still lend a hand in this situation.

It would take him a few days to have the house he checked out ready so he could help Medusa's master. Servants are by design a lot stronger than humans so if she couldn't free her master on her own that meant she was either up against someone stronger than her or there was powerful magic involved, he was betting on the latter. He was fully expecting her to meet him at the school the day before the plan was to be implemented. He knew she could get away long enough to hear his plan, she may be a bit anti-social but she was a lot smarter than she let on.

As he was heading to the abandoned house he felt the presence of a servant, it was at the edge of his senses but he decided to take a look anyway even if just to see which servant was in the area.

When he got to the location he sensed the servant at Eragon spotted Saber with her and Archer's master patrolling the more deserted areas where a servant might prowl and a battle was likely to breakout. Considering the only other servant he sensed while out and about tonight was Medusa he figured the other masters were being cautious, and if he had to guess he would say it was because of him.

If he, or as everyone knows him as Caster, the physically weakest servant was actually the most powerful threat then they would take their time and evaluate him before attacking, not a bad plan. Though that begs the question what are they doing out, maybe they were trying to find and eliminated other servants to end this war quickly but with Saber's condition if they found another servant they would probably die.

He thought about ignoring them before deciding to have a bit of fun with them by making them think Assassin was after them, well technically he was the Assassin of this war but since he was playing Caster for the time being they wouldn't suspect him. He didn't need to start the preparations to help Medusa immediately to he decided to have a bit of fun with Saber and her companions. He figured that yes, he would play the part of Assassin just to through them of guard, and he'd get to act another part. He was already playing Caster and was going to also be Rider so why not play the class he actually was, it's good to have variety after all.

Eragon used his magic to take on the appearance of a stereotypical assassin, his outfit changed and became all black.

His Assassin costume was pitch black in colour and looked like a full body suit but the arms and feet were wrapped in a dark cloth similar to bandages. Two black bladed wrist gauntlets were strapped to each of his arms with the blades being no longer than four inches. A black bandolier of potions and poisons meant to distract and stun his opponent ran across his chest, even after all these millennia his potion skills were barely above average, and around his waist was a black belt with several pouches of various sizes.

Two large ones rested on each hip with an extra band on them around to keep them from making sound while he moved. In the smaller pouches on the belt were potion based smoke and flash bombs and several small throwing knives, his aim wasn't actually that bad with those things.

There was also a miniature crossbow on his belt with extra bolts wrapped around his upper arm.

A pair of sheaths were strapped to his outer thighs and held within them were two blades, it was a good place for them as they were within easy reach.

Each of the blades was the style of a kukri knife measuring about fourteen inches in length, including the grips. The blades themselves were incredibly sharp and also had sharp points to them, so while they were primarily slashing weapons they could be used as stabbing ones too.

To prevent anyone from seeing his face his hair became short and black, and he was wearing a smooth black mask with two holes for the eyes, there were no designs or holes for the nose or mouth.

He spent a minute admiring his work, now he looked like an assassin but he also had to move like one. That wasn't a problem as he had some training as a ninja to always be silentand invisible, hell he'd trained some ninja himself, so he was pretty sure he could pull off the look.

Looking at his targets he almost laughed when they stopped at a fork in the road and argued as they were trying to decide which way to go.

Oh this was going to be fun.

* * *

AN: that's my chapter please review.


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